Pure Digital i10
Simple, cheap and easy to use but where sound is concerned, the i10 disappoints
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Charges iPods and allows remote control
Against
Emasculates iPod sound
iPod docks, or even 3.5mm inputs, are by no means common sights on budget-orientated equipment. That's why Pure's i-10 seems such a timely idea – dedicated docks at this sort of price are thin on the ground.
After a long stint with it, we're afraid we know why that is.
The i-10 is a stripped-down unit, with a battery-charging cradle, input from the mains and 3.5mm output to your amplifier. There's also a little remote control.
There's not much to the i-10 then, and when it comes to sound quality it lets itself down quite badly.
Sounds drab and uninspired
No matter the genre or compression of music we played – everything from an iTunes-purchased, 128kbps file of Elvis Presley's Way Down to a lossless file of Anne Sofie von Otter's intimate reading of Elvis Costello's Baby Plays Around – the Pure sounds drab and uninspired.
Timing is ragged, vocalists sound matter-of-fact, and low frequencies are only half-inflated.
For £30, there's a case to be made for the straightforward iPod dock that allows charging and remote control without sticking its oar into sound quality.
A dock that sounds inferior to an iPod's headphone output simply won't fly.