Pure Digital Sirocco 150

Read your Review previous to buying the sirocco so were cautious about it, but already owning a pure evoke 1S and being a Pure Fan went ahead with it.Theres alot to like and a far bit to dislike though overall im still pleased i bought it.

Main reason i bought it were for DAB performance and for this reason didnt dissapoint at all most stations are between 98 and 100% on the signal-reading, other reviews for units in the same price bracket had quite a few ppl commenting on not so good DAB performance so yer maybe its a trade off in one way against better bass on "some" tracks with other manufacturers units however remember this unit is only 25WRMS.

    For me theres alot of tracks where the audio just blows me away for the output power-Soft Rock tracks particularly sound good, just feel punchy fast bass occasionally sounds hollow and a bit of a let down.

Bought mine online without trying one first and for what i want it for is perfect apart from these things below that i think would have made it soooo much better.

The unit comes with a wire aerial and i`d have preferred a telescopic one-they just look neater.

Remote control i find awful-youre never quite sure that youve pressed the button as theres a quite spongey rather than definate feel that its"clicked" if you like when pressing buttons.

Display on the unit is clear enough in the day however at night theres like a green haze on the display screen-the digits are green but not as the evoke 1S on a totally black background making it 100% clearer than the sirocco to read from a distance,it is a problem from say 10-12ft away and my eyesights fine.The Evoke 1S in the kitchen you can read from miles away.

Still with the display the scrolling info isnt as smooth and fluent as the evoke 1S either almost like it refreshes as it moves across causing flashing of now playing/news etc-its readable ok just after the evoke you kinda wonder why more stuff didnt make its way across to this unit.

Feel the EQ is pretty much a waste of time i`d have preferred a std setting for the sound somewhere in between rock/pop modes then variable bass/treble, though to be fair ive not found the preset treble levels a problem, just occasionally you`ll find a track where none of the EQ settings suit or with bass boost on or off.

Across to the radio performance DAB is excellent and is pretty good on FM aswell though the mono/stereo for fm seems pointless-reminded me of a cheap 80`s unit lol in stereo mode you just got alot of white noise coming through aswell-in mono as you`d expect crystal clear but not proper stereo sound,still managed to get all the stations i wanted however majority of the time wont use normal FM anyway.

The preset function is annoying aswell as it always starts from preset 1 rather than the preset youre actually on or even better give the remote a number pad to enter direct preset number-would be loads better.

Theres a program function for playing tracks in your chosen order or jut picking the ones you want from CD/SD card/USB drive however only really see this being handy for cd`s as theres only a max of 60 enteries-on one of my 2GB SD cards ive got 450 mp3 tracks so 60 is pretty much a waste of time.

Last complaint if you like is theres no balance control so although youve got 2 speakers placement of them is crucial for the best sound ie evenly placed from where youre going to listen to it the most.

To sum up i wanted great DAB performance which is exactly what i got-good sonic performance-which for the wattage/price(paid £135) im happy with.

The thing to take into account for all its sml problems is that the EVOKE 1S DAB radio were £100 originally if not more at some places(i didnt pay anywhere near that)so for (on list price)£50 more you`ve got CD player/SD card + USB Flashdrive facility and a bit more power(and obviously 2 speakers lol)

Broke down like this i feel its every bit worth the £130 you can now buy it at from some places online.

Im not disputing theres maybe better DAB micro hifi`s sonically or at least with a better sounding bass on certain genres of music or with better control over it, however the DAB is pure`s usual top quality,this could have been alot better unit if a few of the above problems were addressed.

For me if i had to mark out of 10 would be 7/10 bearing in mind the price is going down now and you`re getting a 2yr guarantee.