AirFly 2 from Twelve South can wirelessly connect your AirPods to any 3.5mm audio jack. It’s great for airline entertainment systems and gym machines. The new version has a longer battery life, adds new volume controls and costs less than its predecessor.
I tested the wireless audio adapter with AirPods and other headphones, as well as a variety of audio sources. Here’s why I’m quite pleased with it.
This post contains affiliate links. Cult of Mac may earn a commission when you use our links to buy items.
Twelve South AirFly 2 review
As amazing as Apple’s handset is, an iPhone can’t be your only source of entertainment. This is especially true on a plane, where I often find the in-flight entertainment system to be my best escape from boredom.
But the poor-quality headphones the airline provides aren’t the only option. With Twelve South’s AirFly 2, you can connect your AirPods to the plane’s entertainment system for much better sound.
And that’s just the start. The wireless audio adapter can be plugged into any 3.5mm headphone jack. Devices that don’t have Bluetooth suddenly become accessible to AirPods. And AirFly 2 works with other Bluetooth headphones, too.
The new version just released this autumn has some new features not available in the original from 2018, including volume buttons.
- Design inspired by AirPods
- Top quality wireless Audio adapter for AirPods
- Twelve South video
- Twelve South AirFly 2 final thoughts
- Pricing
Design inspired by AirPods
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
AirPods were clearly the inspiration for AirFly 2. It’s all smooth and shiny white plastic, with grey accents plus rounded corners and edges. It looks right at home next to my AirPods 3 case.
This accessory is easy to carry around, measuring just 2.2 inches by 1.0 inches by 0.4 inches. It’s a featherweight 0.6 ounces (17 grams), and is easily pocketable.
The biggest change on version 2 is the addition of volume buttons. Some devices, likes gym equipment, make this a hassle, and the buttons are handy for quickly adjustments. And they add the option to easily mute the audio, which is very convenient.
The cable for the 3.5mm audio plug is just 0.8 inches, and is there mostly to give some flexibility when plugging in the adapter.
On one end of AirFly 2 is a USB-C port to recharge the internal battery. This is not a Lightning port, so you can use the same power cable as your MacBook or iPad but not your iPhone.
Twelve South promises up to 20 hours of use on a single charge. I find that reasonable – I’ve been testing the review unit on and off for close to a week and I have yet to even get a low-battery warning.
Top quality wireless Audio adapter for AirPods
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
If you want the TL;DR, Twelve South’s audio adapter is easy to use and reliable. I had no problems with multiple audio sources, or with the couple of wireless headsets I tested.
Connecting AirFly 2 to headphones is as simple as turning it on. It’s automatically in pairing mode. Turn on wireless headphones that are also in pairing mode and they’ll find each other after a few seconds.
Then plug the Bluetooth audio adapter into any 3.5mm headphone jack. If you can plug wired headphones into a jack, AirFly 2 works just as well.
I tested Twelve South’s product by connecting it to my AirPods 3 then plugging it into a home stereo. No problem. I spent a couple of hours listening to the greatest hits of the ’80s and the earbuds stayed connected to the adapter. I’ve used it other times as well, and never had it drop the connection unexpectedly.
Audio quality depends mostly on your headphones. I tested and can’t detect a difference between songs playing through the adapter and the same song streaming directly to the wireless earbuds from my iPhone.
Bluetooth is not long range, and in my tests the the connection between AirPods 3 and AirFly 2 starts to break up after about 25 feet and around a corner. But that’s not going to matter in an airline seat.
There’s a complication when using AirFly 2 with AirPods: to connect Apple headphones to the audio adapter, they must be disconnected from your iPhone, etc. The best feature of AirPods is that they switch easily between Apple devices… but AirFly 2 is not an Apple device.
Pairing the headphones to Twelve South’s audio adapter then back to your iPhone later isn’t a huge hassle, but it’s something to be aware of.
Also, remember this is AirFly 2, not a successor to AirFly Pro. The Pro version can connect to two pairs of headphones at once. And it can act as an audio receiver, so you can make non-wireless speakers into wireless ones. This standard, non-Pro version can not.
Twelve South video
Watch a brief video to see the wireless audio adapter in action.
Twelve South AirFly 2 final thoughts
I travel often enough to be familiar with the frustration of being forced to use cheap airline earbuds when I have AirPods with me. I keep an AirFly in my bag so it doesn’t happen again.
I’ve tested other wireless audio adapters, and Twelve South’s are at least as good as any I’ve tried. Especially at the price!
★★★★☆
Pricing
The regular AirFly 2 price is $34.99, which is below the cost of the original. And it gets better: at the time of this writing, the cost down is $24.99 if you buy from Twelve South.
Buy from: Twelve South
Buy from: Amazon
Those who need more functionality might choose AirFly Duo, which can connect to two sets of AirPods. And AirFly Pro ands the ability to also receive audio from an iPhone to play on a car stereo through the AUX IN port. Don’t miss the Cult of Mac review.
Twelve South provided Cult of Mac with a review unit for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out other in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.
