Pure Digital Contour 100Di review

New Pure dock offers fine performance at a great price Tested at £100

What Hi-Fi? Verdict

A versatile, great-looking and great-sounding dock for a fine price

Pros

  • +

    Nice design

  • +

    great sound

  • +

    strong tuners

  • +

    free app for more content

Cons

  • -

    Treble can get a touch strident at higher volumes

Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.

It's tough to strike a balance between price, feature count and ease of use, but Pure has comprehensively nailed it with its Contour 100Di.

All the major specification bases are covered: there's a dock for your Apple device, an FM radio and a DAB tuner, while build quality is far above what we'd expect at this price level too.

Only the slightly plasticky membrane-covered remote control lets the side down a tad. Special mention has to go to the concealed revolving 30-pin iPod dock, which reveals itself smoothly when pressed. "Nice action," a few of the team enthused.

Radio prowess with DAB and FM

Getting down to business, we started off the test with radio. Many rival products at this price can be a touch noisy with FM, but the Contour tunes itself quickly and keeps a firm hold on the signal, with little crackling or hissing to speak of.

The DAB tuner, likewise, is painless to set up: just scroll through the available stations on the one-line display. Sound quality depends on the source, of course, but we had no complaints, with decent streams.

The Contour's main draw, of course, is its iPod integration. Dock your device and you can navigate it with the dock's remote control – track information is shown on the easy-to-read display.

Impressive sound and build

We were as impressed with the sound as we were with the 100Di's build quality, too. It won't rattle your windows, of course, but its two 7.5cm drivers and rear-firing bass port deliver a surprisingly weighty performance.

Voices are clearly defined, with a pleasing amount of detail ringing through, while the top of the frequency range stays composed until the volume reaches antisocial levels.

And if you're wondering where the internet radio functionality is, don't worry – it's merely a few clicks away in Apple's App Store, courtesy of the free Pure Lounge app.

Download it to your iPhone or iPod Touch and you will be granted access to masses of stations, plus on-demand catch-up content.

We really like the Contour 100Di. It looks great, sounds great and offers truly impressive value for money.

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What Hi-Fi?

What Hi-Fi?, founded in 1976, is the world's leading independent guide to buying and owning hi-fi and home entertainment products. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies. Everything is tested by our dedicated team of in-house reviewers in our custom-built test rooms in London, Reading and Bath. Our coveted five-star rating and Awards are recognised all over the world as the ultimate seal of approval, so you can buy with absolute confidence.

Read more about how we test