Fender Audio Hits U.S. Retail with ELIE Speakers and MIX Modular Headphones

Todd Anderson · 2026-09-23T07:49:17-0500

(September 23, 2026) Fender is one of those names that arrives with a mountain of audio history already attached to it. For nearly 80 years, the company has been part of the sound of popular music, mostly through instruments and the gear musicians use to make them heard. Fender Audio takes that familiarity in a different direction, and following a debut at CES earlier this year, its first major crop of consumer products is now hitting U.S. retail.

The lineup is built around two very different ideas. ELIE is a pair of portable speakers designed to live somewhere between a premium Bluetooth speaker and a compact performance tool, while MIX is a modular wireless headphone built around long battery life, multiple wireless modes, active noise cancellation, and a distinctly customizable approach. Both are available through Fender Audio, Amazon, and Best Buy, giving the brand a much broader retail presence than it had coming out of CES.

ELIE 6 and ELIE 12
ELIE, short for Extremely Loud Infinitely Expressive, is probably the more interesting product family simply because Fender isn’t treating it like another lifestyle Bluetooth speaker. The ELIE 6 and ELIE 12 are portable, battery-powered speakers, but both carry an XLR and 1/4" combo input alongside Bluetooth and two dedicated low-latency wireless channels. That opens the door to microphones, instruments, presentations, and other uses that go well beyond sitting on a countertop and streaming Spotify.

The smaller ELIE 6 is rated at 60W and uses one full-range driver, one tweeter, and one built-in subwoofer. Fender lists output at 96 dB at 1 meter, with an 18-hour battery, Bluetooth 5.3, IP54 protection, and support for Single, Stereo, and Multi-Mode playback. Multi-Mode can link as many as 100 speakers, which gives ELIE a path from casual personal listening to much larger distributed setups. The speaker also supports 48kHz/24-bit audio, reverse charging over USB-C, and a 3.5mm output.

Physically, ELIE 6 is compact enough to remain genuinely portable. It measures roughly 4.8" wide, 4.1" deep, and 7.7" tall, with a listed weight of 5.1 lb. Fifteen minutes of charging delivers up to 1.5 hours of playback, and its IP54 rating gives it some protection from dust and splashing water. This isn’t something you’re going to toss into a pocket, but it’s small enough to easily move around the house or carry into a rehearsal space without much hassle.

The ELIE 12 essentially takes the same concept and turns up the muscle. Power doubles to 120W, while the driver complement grows to two full-range drivers, two tweeters, and two built-in subwoofers. Fender rates output at 101 dB at 1 meter, and the cabinet uses separate sound chambers tuned for treble and bass. Battery life is listed at 15 hours, with a 15-minute charge delivering up to two hours of additional playback.

ELIE 12 also carries the same broader connectivity idea, including Bluetooth 5.3, XLR and 1/4" combo input, two low-latency wireless channels, Stereo and Multi-Mode pairing, bass and treble controls, USB-C reverse charging, and IP54 protection.

This is where the Fender heritage starts to make sense. Plenty of companies know how to make a Bluetooth speaker, but fewer have a natural reason to include instrument and microphone connectivity. The XLR and 1/4" combo input allows either ELIE model to function as a full-range speaker for a musician, performer, presenter, or creator, while still behaving like a normal portable speaker when the guitar gets put away. There’s something appealing about a product that can soundtrack a backyard one afternoon and handle a microphone or instrument the next.

Fender is also leaning on a Waves system-on-chip implementation to manage DSP, power, efficiency, and distortion. The company calls it a world-first implementation, though the more practical takeaway is that ELIE is being positioned as a fairly serious compact audio platform rather than simply another rugged wireless box. Adaptive voltage management is designed to maintain clarity and depth as volume changes, which should be especially useful on the ELIE 12 where 120W and a pair of built-in subs give the system considerably more room to stretch its legs.

The ELIE 6 is priced at $299, while the larger ELIE 12 lands at $399.

MIX Headphones
MIX takes Fender Audio in a completely different direction. These are $299 over-ear wireless headphones built around a modular design, which Fender says allows components to be mixed, matched, serviced, and upgraded. That makes them interesting before getting into anything electronic, because repairability and customization aren’t exactly defining characteristics of most modern wireless headphones.

Sound is handled by 40mm graphene drivers with a listed frequency response of 20Hz to 40kHz. MIX supports hybrid active noise cancellation, spatial audio, dual microphones with Environmental Noise Cancellation for calls, and Bluetooth 5.3 with SBC, AAC, LC3, and LHDC support. Fender also includes its FWD Tx USB-C wireless transmitter, which unlocks three additional listening modes: 96kHz/24-bit lossless wireless audio, a low-latency mode rated below 20 milliseconds, and Auracast.

That transmitter could end up being one of MIX’s more useful features. Low latency makes sense for gaming and video, while lossless wireless gives music listeners a higher-quality path from compatible devices. Auracast adds another layer by allowing audio to be broadcast to multiple compatible devices. And if wireless isn’t what you want, MIX can also pass uncompressed digital audio over USB-C, with support for lossless or high-resolution lossless playback depending on the source.

Fender rates MIX for up to 100 hours with ANC switched off and 52 hours with ANC running. A 15-minute quick charge can provide up to eight hours of playback with ANC or 14 hours without it, and a full charge takes roughly two hours. There’s also a traditional 3.5mm input, and importantly, the headphones can continue operating passively through that connection even if the battery is dead. You lose digital processing and the internal DAC in that passive mode.

At 1.1 lb, MIX isn’t an ultralight headphone, though Fender has designed memory foam ear cushions and an adjustable headband with all-day use in mind. The package includes a carry bag, USB-C charging cable, 3.5mm cable, and the FWD Tx transmitter. Buyers also get the choice of Skyscraper Black or Olympic White, with the latter receiving more limited retail availability.

Pricing and Availability

Fender Audio’s ELIE 6, ELIE 12, and MIX headphones are available now in Skyscraper Black through Amazon, Best Buy, and us.FenderAudio.com. Olympic White versions are available exclusively through BestBuy.com at launch.

Pricing is $299 for ELIE 6, $399 for ELIE 12, and $299 for MIX.

If you’d like to support AV NIRVANA, you can purchase through the following Amazon links at no additional cost to you:

ELIE 6: https://amzn.to/46ANv5Q
ELIE 12: https://amzn.to/47anGd0
MIX Headphones: https://amzn.to/4iKgbRe

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Fender Audio Hits U.S. Retail with ELIE Speakers and MIX Modular Headphones

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