iFi's UP Travel Max promises Auracast from day one, unlike its cheaper sibling

iFi has added a Max version of its UP Travel adapter. The Verge reported it on 29 October at US$129; iFi's UK store lists it at £129 and its Australian store at A$249. Like the original, it flips between transmitting and receiving. The headline changes are Bluetooth 5.4, the aptX Lossless codec, and Auracast broadcast to as many compatible headphones as can hear it.

The interesting part for this site is a missing footnote. When iFi launched the UP Play Max dongle in September, its product page said Auracast would arrive "in a firmware update shortly after launch". It still says that today, and the feature has not shipped. The UP Travel Max page has no such caveat. It calls the device one of the first iFi products with full Auracast compatibility and says broadcast is switched on in the iFi Nexis app.

What it does

A switch on the side picks the mode.

• Transmit (TX): plug it into a plane seat, a laptop or anything with a headphone jack, using the 3.5 mm input, or into USB-C. It sends that audio to Bluetooth headphones and, with Auracast, to any number of Auracast receivers at once. Think two kids on a long-haul flight, or a group following one laptop.
• Receive (RX): plug its 3.5 mm output into a car's AUX socket and stream from your phone to the car stereo.

iFi's spec sheet lists aptX Lossless, LDAC, LHDC/HWA, aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, aptX, AAC and SBC. It has a 400 mAh battery rated at 10 hours or more, weighs 25.7 g and measures 55 × 30 × 16.8 mm. There is a built-in DAC and headphone-level output for RX mode, plus iFi's K2 processing. The original UP Travel used Bluetooth 5.2 and had no aptX Lossless, according to HiFi Oasis's review.

What we don't know yet

• Whether Auracast works in the box. No reviewer has joined a broadcast from one yet, and iFi's store showed it out of stock on launch day. We have it as announced only until someone does.
• Whether RX mode can join a broadcast. iFi only describes Auracast as streaming out to other devices. Being able to plug it into a car or an amplifier and tune into an Auracast broadcast would make it a receiver too, but iFi does not claim that.
• The broadcast settings. iFi does not say whether you can name the broadcast, set a password, or choose the sample rate. Those matter if you want to use it near hearing aids or keep strangers off your stream. iFi's codec list also does not mention LC3, the codec Auracast uses, though that is likely an omission rather than a missing feature.

Cheaper ways to do the in-flight part today

If you need a plane-seat Auracast transmitter now, two cost less than half as much and already work.

The Avantree Voyager (US$59.99) comes with the twin-prong airline adapter and broadcasts to as many Auracast receivers as you like. Sennheiser's BTD 700 (US$59.95) is a USB-C dongle with Auracast and aptX Lossless, which suits laptops and phones but has no 3.5 mm input.

Neither receives, and neither will put your phone on a car stereo. If you want one gadget for the plane and the car, and your headphones support aptX Lossless or LDAC, the UP Travel Max is the more capable box on paper. We will update the listing when someone confirms the broadcast works, and when iFi delivers the update it promised for the UP Play Max.