Fender just released its first headphones and Bluetooth speakers, but I feel like it forgot something Marshall and Orange knew

Fender Unveils Two Bluetooth Speakers at CES 2026
They are joined by full-size wireless headphones with a 100-hour battery life.
They are not made by Fender, but by another company that licenses the name.

You probably know Fender as the legendary guitar brand, universally known for its Stratocasters, Telecasters, and Jazzmasters, as well as its amps and pedals. But within CES 2026 we now see consumer products bearing this name aimed not only at music performers, but also at music listeners.

Headlining the line are two Bluetooth speakers called ELIE, an acronym for Extremely Loud, Infinitely Expressive. There's the $299 ELIE E6, which has 60W output and 15 hours of battery life, and the $399 E12, which doubles the power and adds three hours of runtime. Exact release dates and international availability have yet to be confirmed.

The exact sound characteristics of these speakers have yet to be confirmed, but they do feature built-in subwoofers for detailed and powerful bass. They offer Bluetooth connectivity, allowing you to connect two speakers in stereo mode or up to a hundred in multi-mode with cacophonous sound, and there's also a 3.5mm AUX jack. The handle provides added portability.

A nice feature is that ELIE products have an XLR connector, so in theory you could plug in a guitar and use them as portable amps. Obviously they don't quite match valid portable amps, but they may come close and I'd be curious to test it on my own Stratocaster.

Orange box And Marshall Middleton II keep that amp DNA by looking like pint-sized versions of the stacks that would grace the sides of a stage at a concert. Fender ELIE models are essentially boxes.

best headphones: Noise cancelling, spatial audio, 3.5mm connection and listening via USB-C as well as 3.5mm jack.

Official battery life is 52 hours with ANC on or 100 hours with ANC off, and apparently you can continue to use them once they reach 0% using a wired connection. It seems like the jam will never run out.

At first glance, the Mix looks like standard Bluetooth headphones; not to mention Marshall, but his own ears again retain the guitar amp aesthetic, and some might call Fender variants A little boring in comparison. We can't judge a speaker by its cover, though, so we'll have to test these first models to see if they can live up to the brand's iconic status.

These three products mark the debut of the Fender Audio consumer brand, which is technically owned by Fender but operated by Singapore-based Riffsound. They were actually announced a month before CES, but in their initial statement the brand made it clear that CES would mark their “real” reveal – and why not? CES is a great show in Las Vegas, worthy of a rock 'n' roll legend like Fender.

Because another company uses the name, it's not entirely clear how closely these and future products will match Fender's style and how much of the brand's musician- and guitar-focused amplification technologies will be used in these consumer products. Again, the proof will be in the pudding – i.e. testing. But I don't expect a similar licensing deal to be done for just three gadgets; we'll probably see more in the future.

TechRadar will be covering this year's events in detail. KESand will keep you informed of all important announcements as they become available. Visit our CES 2026 News a page with the latest stories and our hands-on verdicts on everything from wireless TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops, smart home gadgets and the latest artificial intelligence technology.