Is it a bird? Is it a plane? 9 months after being revealed, that twisty pair of headphones which turns into a speaker just finally became available to buy

(Image credit: Future) TDM Neo is a headphone and loudspeaker in oneFinally on sale, 9 months after CES unveilingIt's smarter than you thinkOne of the most memorable product launches at CES 2026 in January was the TDM Neo, which was thoroughly tested by our editor back then, and now you can finally buy the gadget.As you may be able to tell from the headline, this is a novel two-in-one audio product. It's both a pair of headphones, and a loudspeaker, with a twisting mechanic letting you switch it from one to the other (and telling the gadget which speakers to play music out of).As of Tuesday, October 6, you can now buy the TDM Neo from a range of retailers, including Amazon, TDM's website and Walmart. It costs $249 / £249 (about AU$500) so it's not a cheap device, but bear in mind you're getting two gadgets for one.In our initial testing, our editor was pleasantly surprised by how well the TDM Neo was thought out: it's not a gimmicky gadget, but has a few smart considerations. Stay tuned for a full review whenever we get the Neo in our hands (or on our head? About our person?).Twist and shout (Image credit: Future)The TDM Neo has a quartet of 40mm speakers: two of them are part of the headphone module, placed against your ears, and the other two are for the speaker, facing outwards at all times. This combination means the drivers aren't playing jacks of all trades, and can focus on their respective role. It even has multiple microphones, for calls when it headphone mode.Is this thing a battery too? Because the device lasts for an incredibly 200 hours when you're using it as a pair of headphones. That drops to 16 hours as a speaker, which still beats many of our go-to party speakers.As headphones go, it's a little heavy at 340g. It's nice to see features from both the headphone and speaker world come together here: there are control buttons, various features like find-my and a low-latency gaming mode, and a separate EQ for the two different Neo functions.Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.As with all novel products like this, I can see a lot going wrong. What if the twisting mechanism fails, so the speakers play when you're in headphone mode, or could parts wear down from all the motion? So I'm especially curious to test the thing out. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Tom Bedford is a freelance contributor covering tech, entertainment and gaming. Beyond TechRadar, he has bylines on sites including GamesRadar, Digital Trends, Android Police, TechAdvisor, WhattoWatch and BGR. From 2019 to 2022 he was on the TechRadar team as the staff writer and then deputy editor for the mobile team.