back to article Pure Oasis Flow weatherproof DAB and Internet radio

Pure’s range of digital radios has typically included portable DAB models and several Wi-Fi equipped versions for streaming audio from your computer and access to Internet stations. Many are designed with portability in mind if you’re inclined to splash out on the optional rechargeable battery packs. While the Oasis Flow might …

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  1. Andy 97
    Thumb Down

    Headline.

    £170 for a radio ... right....

    Good luck with that then.

  2. Cameron Colley

    Why are DABs always mono?

    Surely for this kind of money they could work out a way to add another speaker?

    Also, are these mono devices playing back only one of the two stereo tracks, which would make older music sound horrendous, or do they play both tracks through the same speaker, which would make some modern "out of phase" stuff sound horrendous?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Pure Evoke - not that brilliant

    I've bought an Evoke Flow and it is a pain to use:

    1. To turn it on press a virtual button and wait four seconds.

    2. To turn it off press Off and then press OK (WHY?????) and wait four seconds.

    3. To navigate the UI guess whether you need to hit the bent arrow, turn the wheel or press the wheel as there's no obvious consistency in use between sections.

    4. To listen to something from the internet be patient - as it takes an age to buffer. If you skip ahead a section be prepared to listed, for a few seconds, to the start of the recording before the radio catches up and then plays the right part.

    5. Sometimes the internet radio part will go quiet and stop. Then, hours later, it will burst into life causing mild panic in the kitchen as a result.

    6. When Pure decide to make an update available (and one week we had at least 2) don't expect to be able to do anything until the download is done. The radio will fire up and tune to whatever it was last doing but the UI goes into a modal "You WILL do a download and nothing else - not even the bloody volume will work". What idiot thought that was a good idea?

    7. Finally - instead of fixing any of the above - the big news with the last download was the ability to use Pure as a middleman in buying songs based on what you're listening to.

    So, in summary, nice looking raio that's slow to turn on, slower to turn off, confusing to navigate, unreliable on internet based services (and I'm on 20MBs Virgin cable) and appears to update infrequently but with features I really didn't want.

    Would I buy one again? Nope.

    1. Fredlocks
      FAIL

      PURE Evoke Flow is crap!

      I have one too and I completely agree. The reviews were close to ecstatic when the Pure Evoke Flow came out but did any of the reviewers actually live with the product?

      It really is a huge compromise on almost every front. Pure are simply not good enough and there products just don't make the grade.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    What???

    £170 for a MONO shower radio?? Seriously? Funny how DAB was always supposed to give us better quality but then gives us a bloody awful mono speaker and charges us 10 times the price of an FM only equivalent.

    Think i'll stick with my 10 year old Panasonic FM radio which runs off 4 'C' cell batteries which need changing once a year and works perfect well while having a shower.

    Thanks but no thanks!

  5. JaitcH
    Pint

    Slightly pricey but built for the Tropics

    Many parts of the Tropics don't have rain showers, they have, appropriately, soaking deluges which penetrate almost anything even though they might last only an hour or two,

    In fact, as I post this I have been getting soaked for about 35 minutes and it would be on occasions like these that the water resistant features would prove their worth, The DAB features aren't of much use out here, we have acres of unused FM spectrum, but the the manufacturers thoughts are in the right place - the potential international market.

    Maybe it's Mono because when the signal breaks up, or gets delayed, the irritating noises are less so when experienced in mono whereas stereo really tends to emphasise all signal quality shortcomings.

    1. Cameron Colley

      So you can't get a mono shower radio for under £170?

      If you are in the tropics without DAB then why would you buy a DAB radio for £170 when shower radios are available for £10? Also, if you're wealthy enough to buy a £170 radio and have an internet connection then why can't you afford a tent or a plastic bag (beloved of wildlife camera men I believe) or somesuch?

  6. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Flame

    Wouldn't touch another Pure product with a bargepole.

    Having suffered three Pure Highway units repeatedly failing in over two years, there is no way I can recommend them or their laughable UK customer service. The three units are the original, which didn't seem to provide any better service than oridnary FM radio, and two replacement units I insisted on receiving seeing as they couldn't fix the problems with the first unit (or the second one, and now the third one too). I've even had an expensive check of the car's electronics (it's a classic so there really wasn't much to check!) because Pure insisted it wasn't a problem with their units. Regardless of what age vehicle I've used the units in, within a few weeks they start failing, usually by not picking up stations when the same station's FM signal is coming through perfectly! I can't think of a better way to switch people off the idea of digital radio than to use a Pure product.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Pure products also held at barge-pole's length here

      Agreed with the poster above - my family have had three Pure DAB radios (the wooden-cased ones), not bad whilst they work but they have all died within about a year or so of purchase. Completely dead, nothing obvious like a power supply problem. Not economically repairable. Not good for £100 radios.

      On the other hand haven't had any problems at all with my Sony DAB radio which is many years old now.

  7. Rob Davis
    Thumb Up

    Nice kit, Revo Pico RadioStation is an alternative to consider

    Nice kit - because of the portability and waterproof design.

    Also consider the Revo Pico RadioStation (in similar or slightly cheaper price range, depending on where you buy):-

    http://revo.co.uk/digital-radio/revo-pico-radiostation.php

    This was also well reviewed by the register (85%) some time ago: http://www.reghardware.com/2008/10/11/review_dab_radio_pico_radio_station/

    I'd like to know if this Pure model works with Wi-Fi adhoc networks for receiving the internet radio service, so that one could connect it wirelessly to a mobile (e.g. running Joikuspot) in tethering mode, so I could take it down the allotment and listen to internet radio there. I've not had success with the Revo model for this arrangement, though standard WiFi (infrastructure) from a Wireless broadband router in the home is fine.

    At the very least, I would be sure, that like the Revo, this Pure model will faithfully connect to such standard, common-all-garden, Wifi infrastructure networks from a standard broadband router too.

    The Revo is portable and about the same size as the Pure, and the Revo is also similarly suitable for use in less than dry environments such as the kitchen, bathroom and outdoors.

    However I wouldn't suggest that the Revo would similarly withstand a tropical or heavy shower as this Pure model would, owing to the additional RCA/phone connectors, USB and other inputs on the back of the Revo which would offer a route for water entry under such heavy downpour.

    That said I am a very happy customer of the Revo Pico Radiostation, for the last year or so, bought in August 2009, battery life still holding up.

  8. Paul Shirley

    another box DAB

    Is it compulsory for all DAB devices to be hideous boxy?

    Still, they skipped the faux wood panel look 99% of them use. So slightly less hideous than normal.

  9. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    "Pure’s new FlowSongs service enables you to identify tracks on the radio and buy them"

    So it doesn't record. Bugger.

    Pure Evoke-3 records to SD card but has several annoyances, such as clock randomly self-setting up to a minute slow - bloody awful in a timed recording device (tip from a BBC messageboarder - switch off and unplug, then use an accurate clock to switch on at 8, 7, or fewer seconds before the minute, is the best you can do) - SD not true SDHC (can you even buy SD cards now?) and USB 1 speed (10 minutes of Radio 4 = 10 megabytes = 1 minute to download). Actually I haven't finished being cross about the SD card - the larger the card size, the longer delay between pressing Record and recording starting to happen. Formatting and partitioning doesn't seem to cure that. What the hell is it doing with it? I got a 256 MB card which is about all right for several daytime recording - about 4 hours.

    And it costs £180. You can get a netbook and a Freeview TV adapter for less than that (just), and get most of the same radio stations.

  10. Circadian
    FAIL

    portable (giggle, guffaw) radios (bwaahahhaaahha, please stop, it hurts!)

    Is this DAB's version of "portable"? Something else the jackasses who are trying to force this tech on everyone don't seem to consider. A portable FM radio these days can made so small that it is can be lost in your small change - it's limiting factor is the speaker, the jack to put headphones into, or the interface to select a channel.

    I am still waiting for a credible answer to why would anyone want this version of DAB? It requires more power, larger form factor, and a lot more expense than an equivalent FM receiver. That's if I wanted to get a new device. And as far as having to replace all my old FM sets if they ever switch them off - don't think I would be bothering.

    Gah, mumble grumble get offa my lawn, dam' youngsters...

  11. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Portable DAB can be this small.

    I got this one. http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-2946.aspx It is both DAB and FM.

    Has a few annoyances, such as, to switch on you hold the button down for about 3-4 seconds. I suppose it prevents switching on accidentally and eating the battery.

    And I taped a bootlace neck cord onto it - it's got a cord tie point but using that means the radio is right way up - but when you're wearing it you want it upside down, I think, like a nurse's watch, so that when you pick it up to look at it is right way up to you. (You don't want the radio controls facing your body or you keep pressing them accidentally... but you can lock them.)

    Works pretty well with two AAA rechargeable NiMH batteries.

    Doesn't have an Internet connection.

  12. John King 1

    Volume knob change?

    I've returned 3 Pure DAB radios after being unable to live with them for more than a week. My main gripe is the UI and volume control.

    I like to listen to a bit of FiveLive at bedtime and I want to be able to control the volume at low levels. Every Pure I've bought has a gradiated volume control to so instead of an analogue dial allowing me to set this precisely I get a '1' which is way too loud and a '0' which is off. That's no good.

    I picked up a £20 generic portable radio/cd from Currys which does the job fine (plus jack inputs for mp3 player). I may get R5 on AM but at least I can set the volume how I like.

    For the money that Pure charge you would have thought that they would have come up with the perfect DAB product by now, rather than these expensive almost-theres.

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