Pure One - (Pure Digital One)

Name: Jingodan

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Product:	Pure Digital One
Date:	03/07/08 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic Signal, Compact, Great Speaker Sound, Optional Power Output.

Disadvantages: Looks Too Plastic, Display Slightly Small.

The Pure Digital One was my first venture out in the DAB market. I've owned this product for well over 18 months now and i can honestly say there, there are very few negative points about it...

As with all Digital recievers be it Radio or TV, ensure your in an area that accepts a digital signal. There are many websites online that will can give you a breakdown of the stations your likely to pick up in your area via your post code check. Alternatively as with myself, high street electrical stores selling these products can also check if your in a strong signal area too, before you buy.

Now where i live isn't particularly a great digital area. For example i cannot get a signal for digital TV and when trying out a relatives DAB radio in my home to decide if one would benefit me, i could only get signal strength for only a handful of channels..... However, why i chose to go out and buy a DAB radio regardless, was because i could pick up a station on DAB that i struggled to get a good signal on my analogue set up.

To my surprise the first time i switched the Pure One on and tuned it into its digital frequency it found a lot more stations than my borrowed relatives DAB device, so for me it was a total added bonus.

Infact since owning the Pure One, as purely an experiment, i've tried a couple of other DAB radios of friends in my home, and still the Pure One seems to find me more channels, this is with or without the aerial extended!

Now for the product itself......

Firstly the Pure One is available in different colours. To my knowledge you can choose between a Black, White or a very disturbing shade of Pink unit!!

Its small, lightweight and very compact as a device. You've a nice sized speaker to the left of the unit. On the right are your main tuner/volume dial, seven smaller buttons to access settings, a small 2.5inch display screen and your power button in the bottom right hand corner. There is also a USB connection on the unit, incase you wish to upgrade the firmware via your PC and a headphone socket too..

On the reverse side of the radio, lies the mains power adaptor connection and it houses a battery compartment too. I will make a point here of saying, that DAB radios in general guzzle batteries, so if your thinking of going portable with this radio, then i'd advise buying some rechargeable batteries (6x R14). However you can always purchase Pures own "Chargepak" which is a battery pack that will recharge itself within the device itself and give you around 20hrs of usage per charge.

As soon as your powered up with either batteries or mains connection and extended the aerial, away you go!!

The set up is very easy and straight forward. It will autotune itself on first power up, although sometimes it pays to run the autotune again, especially when your deciding where to place this product in your home. Sometimes the unit placement can also dictate the signal and how many stations you can pick up, from one room to the next.

Sound wise, despite only having one speaker, its more than enough, the clarity of sound is good and the volume strength is reasonable too...

The middle tuning/volume dial is always going to be the main focus of using this radio. Its well designed and comfortable to use. Via pressing the smaller buttons surrounding it the main dial, gives you the additional options which includes switching the unit into FM frequency mode, setting station presets, a timer mode, adjusting the display information and appearance of your small display screen.

The display screen itself is small, but for me its fine, but for an elderly person or someone with a visual impairment, it may not be easy on the eyes. The backlight when your scrolling through stations and information is quite clear, but ultimately you get the feeling if screen was another inch wider and taller, it would of been perfect.

However the screen, does present all the information you need. It displays the time, radio station, scrolling text, signal strength and a power gauge which is handy when using batteries...

Equally, altougth this unit is sturdy, it does give the appearance of a very plastic looking piece of kit. However, i'd advise anyone to see beyond the design, because the device does its job and does it well....

For an entry level device the Pure One gets my recommendation. It is a very basic DAB radio, more expensive models have the ability to record and playback programmes, their screens are bigger in size and display more text... But for the price and the fact its so portable either inside or outside the home too, with the option for battery usage, then you can't go far wrong......

Summary: A worthy purchase if your looking for an entry level DAB radio.

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