I tried headphones that twist into a Bluetooth speaker — and I can't believe I actually loved the idea

It's all about the TDM Neo's execution

09 Jan 2026, 09:41 · TechRadar

Features By Matt Bolton published 9 January 2026

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The joy of coming out to CES every year is encountering things you've never seen before, and CES 2026 delivered nicely – and one prime example for me was the TDM Neo headphones.

They're not the easiest product to describe, so I hope the image above helps to paint a picture, but here's the deal: this a pair of on-ear wireless headphones that turn into a Bluetooth speaker instantly when you twist them to wrap the headband tightly around the earcups, which magnetically attach to each other.

The end result is a something that looks like an evil cinammon roll, and that instantly starts playing whatever you were listening to on the headphone drivers on a pair of outward-facing bigger speaker drivers instead.

Does it seem gimmicky? Sure – that was certainly my though when I read the press release. But trying it in person, I was actually really won over by the idea, because it's been really well thought-through.

(Image credit: Future)

The whole plan is built around having four audio drivers in total. There's a standard headphone driver on the inside of each earcup, and then a larger and more powerful driver on the outside of each earcup, with both being carefully closed and isolated from each other. There are two amplifiers as well – the headphones drivers and speaker drivers have dedicated amps for more appropriate levels of power.

When you twist the headphones to magnetically attach the earcups to each other, this triggers the audio processing to switch amps, and to start playing from the biggers speakers instead of the smaller ones (or vice versa when you untwist).

However, you can use an app to change this behavior to pause your music when you twist instead of switching output, if you want – because you just know that whatever podcast you were listening to will suddenly have a load of swearing right when you switch to the big speaker. This also makes them a good set of commuting headphones, potentially, since they roll up nice and small to put in your bag.

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