iFi has just unveiled a device that’s no bigger than your AirPods case and whose purpose is as simple as it could be: to transform the music experience in your ancient car in the easiest possible way. The UP Travel Max is essentially an adapter that can send and receive lossless audio via Bluetooth, and it can connect to pretty much anything that has an AUX input or a 3.5mm jack.
If you own an older car, let’s say a model year before 2015, you probably discovered the hard way that getting Android Auto and CarPlay isn’t, let’s say, affordable. A head unit upgrade is the most common advice, but these things obviously aren’t cheap.
They start at maybe $200 for the entry-level setups and can easily go over $1,000 for a premium head unit that has all the modern stuff.
If you’re lucky, your carmaker installed Bluetooth, letting you connect your smartphone to your vehicle to stream music to the cabin stereo system and talk to the phone, you know, without risking losing your driver’s license. If you’re not, you’re probably with an AUX connector that doesn’t do much, except let you connect your old-school MP3 player – seriously now, is anyone still using these things? – to listen to your favorite tunes.
That’s why iFi UP Travel Max is at least worth a look.
Photo: iFi
I admit that iFi’s press release caught my attention with all the tech that it highlighted, beginning with CD-quality sound with aptX Lossless and LDAC. The company says the adapter uses a dedicated Qualcomm Bluetooth chip to handle the connection to whatever device you pair with it and a Cirrus Logic MasterHIFI Dac to handle the wireless signal.
“The result is a cleaner, more detailed sound, wherever you’re listening,” it says.
In plain English, this adapter can be both a transmitter and a receiver, but since we’re here because we’re obsessed with cars, let’s see what it can do in your car. Technically, it must be plugged into your AUX port, assuming you have an old stereo with such an input, and it lets you stream music from your phone via Bluetooth.
Photo: iFi
You’ll be able to listen to your tunes directly through the car’s speakers, and iFi promises you’ll get CD-quality sound even if you stream wirelessly.
Before you ask, you can use whatever music app you want to listen to your music. Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, a local media player- everything works as long as it runs on your phone because the adapter doesn’t care about what app you’re using as long as the audio comes through the Bluetooth connection.
The device uses Bluetooth 5.4, and when it switches to the transmitter role, it can send audio to multiple devices thanks to Auracast integration. You need to own Auracast-compatible headphones for this feature.
It sports a 400 mAh battery, and the parent company says this should be enough for approximately 10 hours of battery life. You can recharge the adapter using the USB-C cable, and considering most of us already have such cords in our cars, this shouldn’t be a major shortcoming, even if the battery doesn’t last as long as the manufacturer promises.
Photo: iFi
This feature comes in handy specifically when you try to use wired devices with wireless headphones, and iFi highlights to specific scenarios. One of them is during your flights, where we typically get a headphone jack integrated into the headrest-mounted screens, and the other one is an old-school iPod.
Before I reveal the price, I can’t help but state the obvious thing: the concept isn’t new, and similar devices have been available for quite some time. Maybe not in the same premium form factor, but such products, offering similar capabilities and letting you turn an AUX port into a wireless receiver, can already be found on Amazon.
This UGREEN adapter does pretty much the same thing, coming with a headphone jack that you can plug into your vehicle’s AUX port to receive audio signals wirelessly via Bluetooth. Furthermore, it also offers LDAC and Bluetooth 6.0, and it doesn’t require any sophisticated configuration. You plug it in, pair it with your smartphone, and start streaming music as if you’re listening to music on Bluetooth headphones.
Photo: UGREEN
The UGREEN adapter costs $18.99 on Amazon today, and you might be able to get it even cheaper shortly, considering Black Friday is just around the corner.
Obviously, there are plenty of other alternatives out there, some selling for as low as $10. They come from generic Chinese brands, though their reliability and audio quality might not be what you expect.
Otherwise, if money isn’t an issue and you’d rather pay a premium for iFi’s new UP Travel Max, be ready to spend $129. The box includes the adapter, one USB-C to USB-A adapter (for cars that still use the old USB design), one USB-C to USB-C cable, and the typical paperwork to get you started.
