Start Of My Digital Era! (Pure Digital One)

Member Name: chugglebunny

Product:	Pure Digital One
Date:	04/09/09 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to Use, Great Feature and Sound Quality

Disadvantages: Silly Placement Of Mains Plug At The Back

I have always been a fan of the radio and although I have quite specific music tastes, I enjoy having the variety and general natter of a radio on in the background, especially to reduce boredom or to make a place seem a little more alive when your home alone.

The Pure One Digital DAB Radio is the first and only DAB radio I have owned, you've got to move with the times right? I had been thinking about purchasing one for a while after hearing good things about this little radio and have now been enjoying it for about 6 months.

The Pure One comes in a choice of 3 colours; black, pink and white. I would have loved to have brought the pink one as it's a cute pastel colour, but opted for the funky and modern white, mainly due to the fact I was planning on using the radio in my office and most of my colleagues already think I'm a bit OTT with pink!

The radio itself I picked up from HMV for £39.99. It came in a simple box packaging with a leaflet with instruction. Although I have never needed to look at these as the radio is extremely easy to use and programme. The design and layout are very simple and stylish and mean it pretty simple to understand what the 7 buttons do.

There are a surprising amount of features for such a simple little radio that are very unexpected and handy. You have the basics like adjustable volume, bass and treble. You can preset and store up to 30 different stations and it also has a timer and alarm function. The display is scrolling or static and is nice and clear to read. Then there are the more complex features including the ability to pause live radio, which I never before knew could be done. I love this feature, especially since using it in an office as I can pause if I wish whilst on the phone and not miss a certain song for example. I imagine this could be handy for those with busy lives running around at home for example after the children with the radio in the kitchen. No need to miss anything.

Size wise, the radio is pretty small and compact. It is only 21 cm in length, 15 cm in height and 7 cm in depth, which means it can fit on nearly any window seal or shelf without any problems. The only slight gripe I have with its design physically is the angle that the mains plug goes into the back. It is slightly too low down, meaning that the wire of the mains plug rests at an awkward angle when trying to stand the radio up. It will not get in the way to stop the radio being placed anywhere, it just means you cannot push it flush against a wall unless you're using batteries.

The radio can run either off the mains or batteries as I mentioned. It takes 6 batteries to run and I'm afraid I can't comment on how long they last as I have always had it plugged in while using it, but it is nice to know it's an option for power cuts or when I want to be a bit more mobile with it.

The most important thing about the radio is its reception...no point having a radio if you can't pick anything up. I have no problems at all with this radio and it finds all the stations I would want nearly instantly and the sound qualities are clear and hiss free. The aerial for the radio is rather long and is adjustable and movable, you can angle it a number of way to ensure your getting the best sound from it. My office is based in an area that can only be described as a signal black hole, my mobile has never had great signal at my desk and most other electrics that run of signals tend to struggle, but my radio has no troubles at all, which is a fantastic result

The radio came with a 2 year warranty which I like for peace of mind. Not that I can think of any aspect that would break or be faulty, it seems to be a pretty sturdy little thing and well made, but then it is covered should for any reason it start playing up.

My only other little gripe would be that the radio, although crystal clear 99.9% of the time, does go ever so slightly fussy when a large vehicle drives past my window, now I can't say I really expect anything else since I work in the demolition industry and these are solid metal machines and very large lorries, but it does cause a bit of a pain at about 4 in the afternoon when everything returns to our yard. To be fair to the radio the second these obstructions are passed in a matter of seconds, the reception is back to its usual high quality. It just would have been a real bonus if this didn't happen.

Overall I can't say much except that this radio is fantastic for casual radio listeners. It's simple, stylish, easy to use and master without anything overly complicated. The sounds quality is perfect 99.9% of the time, as long as you aren't directly near any large metal things blocking it. For the price I paid and the warranty cover too, I would say this radio is a pretty good deal. There is a choice of colour and each one would suit any member of the family. From Grandpa with his classical stations to the hip kids listening to whatever it is hip kids listen to these days!

I would fully recommend it to anyone who wants to listen to the radio with ease!

Thanks for reading! :)

Summary: A Great Little Radio!

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