Party All Night Long! (Pure VL-60967)

Member Name: dee778

Product:	Pure VL-60967
Date:	28/06/09 (148 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact, stylish, outstanding sound quality

Disadvantages: No cd player

When my old music system broke, I set out for John Lewis with 4 main criteria. 1. To get a system that I could play really loud without distortion; 2. It should be small enough to fit on shelf in my kitchen diner; 3. I could plug my ipod into it; 4. It should have DAB radio.
This would keep all of the family happy, as I love radio, my sons love their ipod music, and all of us do most of our entertaining in the kitchen diner.

I chose John Lewis because I know that they take the time to offer really good advice, and that have a free 2 year guarantee.

~~The purchase~~
True to form, the expert from John Lewis talked me over all of the options. I could get an ipod dock which produced a great sound, but did not have radio. I looked at the fantastic B&W Zepplin, and although I was tempted I held out for one with a radio. Looking at the radios with ipod docks, they either seemed to expensive for me or too cheap. The man from John Lewis told me that the cheaper ones would not have the sound quality I wanted. He let me play them all, and I turned up the sound to maximum to test it, much to the embarrassment of my partner! The sales assistant was unfazed and encouraged me to test it to the max!

In the end we decided on the Pure Avanti, and bought it for £279.95. I had not planned on getting internet radio, and simply chose this model for its classy good looks and it's fantastic sound quality.

~~The Design~~
The Avanti looks fantastic! Sleek black and chrome, it is triangular and I think a beautiful design. Pure are the only company that I have found that make triangular radios, and I had a corner shelf built so that it is tucked away in the corner of the room. The best thing about the design is the integral subwoofer, which gives you depth of sound without taking up huge amounts of extra room or trailing extra wiring across the room.

The ipod fits nicely into the top of the radio, and there are converters so that you can play your other MP3 players. The remote is very robust and is also classy and black. It is radio signal operated so you do not have to point it at the console. It is not overcrowded with functionality buttons so it is easy to understand and to chose the function that you want. You can change from internet radio, to DAB, to ipod, by pressing the Source button. This gives you the list of choices, and pressing select takes you to that function. Could it be simpler?

~~Sound Quality~~
I am delighted with the sound quality! The integral sub woofer makes all the difference and is as good as any separate sub woofer. For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, it is "a 5.25in downward-firing subwoofer driven by a claimed 75 watts of power". The two mid-range tweeters and the sub woofer can be easily adjusted via the remote. Three buttons (sub, bass and treble) are on the remote and touching them gives you the ability to adjust any of the three via the up and down arrow.
I can turn the volume to maximum without any distortion. The DAB reception is very clear, and the ipod sound is outstanding.

~~Internet~~
Although I did not originally want an internet radio, I am so glad that I bought one! I connected it to my WiFi router without even consulting the instruction manual. It is that intuitive! The sound quality of the internet radio stations is just as good as the DAB stations, and I am still amazed by how many there are! The internet option allows you to search for stations by name, by country, by genre, and much more.

Pressing the source button takes you to 'The Lounge' option and the connection wizard has you listening to internet stations within a few minutes. This option allows you to access your favourites - my partner loves to find very obscure music stations, but I love to use 'listen again' without having to sit in front of my pc to do so. The radio works in the same way as a laptop, and you do not have to have your pc on to listen to the radio, just your router. When I first tuned in to my WiFi, the radio asked me to perform an upgrade, but I just pressed OK and it all went very smoothly.

I am really not a techie, and I know that many people will do an awful lot more with the internet option on this radio. The fact that I was able to set it up so easily is a great advert for the radio, as it is easy enough for non-techies to understand, but complicated enough to keep the enthusiasts interested.

~~Radio Reception~~
The FM radio reception is very good, and the DAB radio is excellent. It is extremely easy to find radio stations - pressing the down arrow, you can scroll down the whole list of DAB stations, pressing select to go to that station. What HiFi says "The Pure is a tenacious tuner, picking up signals in obscure parts of our listening rooms where other radios give up the ghost". Although I can't confirm tenacious tuning, I can say that I have never had any trouble!

~~iPod~~
The iPod fits very snugly into the top of the radio. Selection is controlled via the radio remote, and a slight disadvantage is that the track information is not displayed on the large radio screen, but only on the iPod screen. In my case, this means that I have to jump up on a chair to see the iPod screen, as the shelf is quite high up! When the iPod is playing, the only information on the radio screen is the time - and the volume, when you change up or down.
Sound quality in iPod mode is fantastic, as usual.

~~Conclusion~~
As you can see, I am totally in love with my Avanti radio! The quality of sound is amazing, the design is brilliant - I feel as if I have bought a luxury item for less than £300.

I have only one (very, very small) regret - I miss being able to play my cd collection, as I have not yet had the time to download them all onto the ipod, however, I know that if Pure had put a cd player into the Avanti, it would not be so small, slick and stylish.

Summary: A huge touch of luxury in my kitchen

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