Pure: ELAN

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Comments (2)

What are your views on this product? Tell other Digital Spy users what the strengths and weaknesses are, and don't forget to include your rating out of five!

Tony, Poole on March 19th, 2006
For £70 (or £59 in the post Christmas sale) you cannot expect a genuine piece of hi-fi. This is a decent sounding tranny, clean and well balanced, but not instantly impressive to either a hi-fi nut or boombox officianado. Soundwise it is an honest piece of kit in a well made box. Sound through the headphone socket to a decent pair of phones looks promising. As a receiver it stands up well to comparison to other sets. Where I live the BBC multiplex can be picked up with the aerial down, NOW Bournemouth and Digital 1 need the antenna and are more location sensitive - though unlike my pocket set it can at least get them on the ground floor. This set is up to scratch in that department. The Pure Elan's claim to fame is that it is the class leader in battery life. This has proved to be the case. Without monitoring the set with a stop watch the 30 hours on DAB (compared to 80 hours on FM) seems realistic. As for the FM section on the set, it works as well or better than other DAB/FM sets seem to (which is not as well as most standard sets do!). Unless you anticipate needing to revert to FM from time to time, or need the 8 pre-sets on each band rather than the 4 on the cheaper version, the DAB only model at £60 might be the one to go for. This is a safe bet and a huge improvement on trannies of yesteryear - despite the negative view by some of DAB. 6 Music and BBC7 are two good reasons to go for it!

Pete, Brighton on May 20th, 2006
Good sound especially on DAB - the FM receiver is el cheapo and cannot pick up the French FM station enjoyed by the cheapest normal transistor radios in Brighton City centre. It is a light and handy portable, easy usable presets and better bassier sound than some reviews have suggested. Only critcism is the battery consumption. Factor in the cost of 6 size C batteries and you'll be relying on mains power as much as I do! Nevertheless this remains the best £70 I have spent on boys toys since 1985.