It’s rare we see a really unique product these days, so when one comes around, it feels like something quite special. That’s exactly the impression most people get when they see the TDM Neo Hybrid Headphones, a pair of wireless headphones that can collapse into a compact portable speaker.
That’s right, these headphones can transform into a speaker and back, allowing you to enjoy some private listening one moment then annoy everyone else around you with loud music the next. Even better, it looks like an actual full-size headphone in headphones mode and a compact portable speaker in speaker mode, so everything feels natural. It’s quite impressive.
The TDM Neo Hybrid Headphones looks like any ordinary pair of headphones at first glance. You get a headband covered in a leather-like material with round over-ear cups covered in comfy memory foam cushions. The earpieces themselves can fold and turn at different angles, making them feel like most modern travel headphones. Unlike other travel headphones, though, it doesn’t collapse by folding. Instead, the headband is designed to twist into a compact spiral shape, allowing the whole thing to collapse to a size that actually fits comfortably in your hand. That twisting design is what’s really special here, since it allows it to shrink down to a size that’s unmatched by any headphones currently in the market.
Aside from the unique twisting design, the headphones also come with a speaker mode that turns it into a loudspeaker. It achieves that by having two sets of drivers on each cup: a 40mm driver on the inside and another 40mm driver on the outside. Instead of playing the sound through the inner drivers like it normally does, it pumps out the audio from the outer cup in speaker mode, essentially turning it into five-watt speakers. You can activate the speaker mode even if it’s in headphones form, by the way, so you can just start blaring music out even while wearing the darn thing. Even better, though, you can set it so that it switches into headphones mode in headphones form and speaker mode in its collapse form automatically, so it can go from one to the other by simply twisting the headband, with no need to fiddle with the controls.
The TDM Neo Hybrid Headphones connects to any audio source over Bluetooth , with multipoint pairing allowing it to stay connected to two devices at the same time, so you can have it paired to both your phone and the TV, then simply switch between one to the other. We don’t know how big of a battery it houses, but it boasts impressive battery life, with the outfit claiming up to 200 hours in headphones mode and over 16 hours in speaker mode. Do note, it’s not an ANC headphone, which would explain some of that extended battery life. There’s USB-C fast charging, too, which feeds it enough juice for eight hours of playback in just five minutes of being plugged in. Alternatively, there’s also a 3.5mm slot with an AUX cable included, so you can enjoy your music tethered if you don’t have a charging port available.
The TDM Neo Hybrid Headphones is available now, priced at $249.
