Bluetooth Pedal Review: PageFlip Firefly vs Airturn Duo 500

twocats · 2025-02-17T08:10:31+00:00

A little review, now that I've used both of the top Bluetooth pedal brands. I've been using a PageFlip Firefly V4 for a couple of years, with a 2015 12.9" i...

twocats

MRC And the iPad can tell me how much charge is left in the battery.

I did not know this!

navindra

twocats I think you should go for it

I'm in! I got the 20% off for BF and I went with the Duo 500.

I'm planning to use AirDirect, although I suspect that will rob me of the nice feature of being able to wake up the sheet reader just by pressing the pedal.

candela Does anybody have experience with any of those page turners that cost a fraction of the price (~ 20-35€), like the Joyo JSP-01 or the Thomann Pageturn Pedal?

I didn't know there was a Thomann pedal, that looks nice! Look at that video above, it has a Wegrower which looks identical to the Joyo you mentioned.

I have a Donner and they have several models which seem to be roughly aligned with the popular models at a fraction of the cost. I think it's functional and does what it says. I do agree that there are diminishing returns vs the jump in price to the expensive models.

I don't think you can go wrong really... these are pretty simple devices with a huge markup on account of supply/demand constraints.

candela

navindra a Wegrower which looks identical to the Joyo you mentioned

Thank you! It seems the same device is sold under many different labels (Joyo, Wegrower, Lekato Aitone etc) I watched and read a few reviews and contrary to the Wegrower reviewer above, most seem happy with the response time, while a minority mention a lag. That's a bit curious. If it's as bad as in the video, I'd think most would mention it and deduct a star or two in their reviews? So I wonder if it partly depends on the tablet or computer it is paired with, or if the units themselves differ?

On paper the Joyo seems to have better battery capacity (450 mAh, 60h) than the Thomann (280 mAh, 35h. If accurate, that may correspond to a longer lifetime for the device as charging cycles themselves wear batteries down. Then again, such numbers can't always be trusted. The Thomann pedal goes into standby after being idle for 20 min which the Joyo doesn't to my understanding. At least the very brief manual doesn't mention it. As a personal opinion I prefer the more compact design of the Joyo if I want to bring it in an instrument case or a bag. So all in all I lean towards the Joyo to dip my toe into page turners, so to speak.

navindra

I got the AirTurn Duo 500.

The primary difference with the cheaper pedal I'd say is the action. It's exactly as Harriet Wong explained it in one of the videos above. I like the new action a lot, although realistically-speaking, it's a subtle improvement. You could certainly survive without it.

The second difference is AirDirect. This lets you pair the pedal with the app directly instead of the OS. So if you don't like the annoying side-effects of pairing an input device with your tablet, this is for you.

However, if you use AirDirect, then you naturally lose a nice feature on a dedicated setup -- you can't wake your sheet music reader just by pressing the pedal.

So I went back to normal pairing with the OS. That ended being a Bluetooth nightmare though it was not the fault of the AirTurn and all is finally good.

Another nice perk is that the AirTurn has a dedicated app that lets you do some advanced customizations.

So the AirTurn works, it's nice and I'll get to enjoy it some more, the more I practice.

The Donner is good too.

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