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If you want to share one airplane screen between two sets of Bluetooth headphones on a long flight, choose Avantree Relay Airplane; if you need a single pair of over-ear headphones with a boom mic for work calls, gaming and travel, choose Belkin SoundForm Adapt. These two products share almost nothing except Bluetooth and a 3.5 mm jack. One is a tiny transmitter built for in-flight entertainment. The other is a full headset built for talking. Here's how to decide.
• Avantree Relay Airplane — biggest strength: It turns a wired 3.5 mm seat-back jack into Bluetooth for two listeners at once, with aptX Adaptive and aptX HD support and up to 25 hours of playtime.
• Avantree Relay Airplane — biggest trade-off: It's transmitter-only. No microphone, and it's not meant for phone calls, TVs, hearing aids, instruments, or receiving audio.
• Belkin SoundForm Adapt — biggest strength: A complete over-ear headset with a boom mic, 45-hour battery life, 40 mm drivers, and both Bluetooth 5.2 and a 3.5 mm wired option.
• Belkin SoundForm Adapt — biggest trade-off: It's one headset for one listener. If two people want to watch the same seat-back screen, it can't split that audio.
• Who each is for: Avantree Relay Airplane for travelers (or couples) who already own headphones and want to share a screen wirelessly. Belkin SoundForm Adapt for someone who needs one pair of headphones that covers calls, gaming and travel.
The Avantree Relay Airplane does one job and does it in a very specific way. You plug it into a 3.5 mm audio jack — a plane seat-back screen is the obvious case — put your Bluetooth headphones into pairing mode, and connect. A dual-prong airplane adapter is included, which matters because many seat-back jacks use that two-pin layout. The headline trick is Dual Link: two pairs of Bluetooth earbuds or headphones can connect to that single audio source at the same time. If you're traveling with a partner and you both want to hear the same movie without splitting a cheap wired headset, this is the whole reason to own it.
Here's who should skip it. Anyone who wants a microphone, phone calls, or to use it with a TV, hearing aids, or a musical instrument should look elsewhere — Avantree is explicit that the Relay is a transmitter only and doesn't do those things. If you already own one pair of Bluetooth headphones and always travel alone, Dual Link buys you nothing. And if you don't own Bluetooth headphones at all, this accessory has nothing to send audio to.
Belkin SoundForm Adapt: Who It's For
The Belkin SoundForm Adapt is a different category of product entirely: a wireless over-ear headset with a boom microphone, designed for work calls, gaming, travel and office use. The mic is the point. Bluetooth 5.2 with a 10-meter range handles the wireless side, and the included 3.5 mm audio cable gives you a wired fallback when you want zero latency or a dead battery isn't an option — handy for a plane seat-back jack or a desktop setup.
The hardware is straightforward and sensible. 40 mm dynamic drivers with a 32-ohm impedance and a 20Hz–20,000Hz frequency range cover the full audible spectrum. Environmental Noise Cancellation is on board for cutting down background rumble, and the controls are touch-based media controls. Battery life is rated at 45 hours, and the charge time is listed at 65 hours, which is worth reading carefully — plan on a long charging session rather than a quick top-up. The earcups are over-ear, the design folds, and it ships with a carrying case made with recycled materials; the enclosure itself uses post-consumer recycled content.
Who should buy it: anyone who wants one pair of headphones to cover video meetings, casual gaming and flights, and who wants the reassurance of a wired option. Who should skip it: someone who already owns better headphones and only needs to solve the "two people, one plane screen" problem — the SoundForm Adapt won't do that. It's also a single-listener product, so a couple sharing a seat-back screen still needs two of them, or a transmitter like the Avantree.
• Best for sharing in-flight audio with a partner → Avantree Relay Airplane. Dual Link connects two pairs of Bluetooth headphones to one 3.5 mm source.
• Best for battery life → Belkin SoundForm Adapt. 45 hours rated versus 25 hours on the Avantree, though the Belkin's 65-hour charge time is far longer than the Avantree's 2 hours.
• Best for calls and meetings → Belkin SoundForm Adapt. The boom mic and Bluetooth 5.2 make it a work headset; the Avantree has no microphone at all.
• Best for long-haul flights alone → Avantree Relay Airplane. aptX Adaptive/aptX HD support, onboard volume controls, a battery indicator, and a dual-prong airplane adapter included.
• Best for mixed wired and wireless use → Belkin SoundForm Adapt. It works over Bluetooth 5.2 or through the included 3.5 mm cable.
• Best for frequent flyers who already own good headphones → Avantree Relay Airplane. You keep your own earbuds and just add wireless sharing.
• Best for someone starting from nothing → Belkin SoundForm Adapt. It's a complete headset; the Avantree is an accessory that needs headphones to work.
• Best if you need noise cancellation → Belkin SoundForm Adapt. Environmental Noise Cancellation is built in; the Avantree is a transmitter and has none.
In my opinion, most people searching this comparison should buy the Belkin SoundForm Adapt. It's the more complete product: a real headset with a boom mic, 40 mm drivers, noise cancellation, 45 hours of battery, and both wireless and wired connections. It solves the everyday problem of calls, gaming and travel in one purchase. I'd only steer you to the Avantree Relay Airplane if your specific problem is sharing a plane's seat-back screen with a second person, or if you already love your own headphones and just want to make them wireless on a flight. In that narrow case, the Avantree is the right tool — and the Belkin simply can't do that job.
FAQ
No. Avantree states it's transmitter-only, with no microphone, and it's not intended for phone calls, TVs, hearing aids, musical instruments, or receiving audio. If calls matter, that's the Belkin SoundForm Adapt, which has a boom mic and Bluetooth 5.2.
The Avantree Relay Airplane is rated at up to 25 hours of playtime with a 2-hour charge time. The Belkin SoundForm Adapt is rated at 45 hours of battery life, but its listed charge time is 65 hours — so the Belkin lasts longer per charge while the Avantree refills much faster.
The Avantree Relay Airplane. Dual Link is what lets two pairs of Bluetooth headphones listen to the same 3.5 mm source. The Belkin SoundForm Adapt has no equivalent feature — you'd need two of them, and even then each would connect to its own source.
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