Usage
A look at the 32-character LCD screen shows that you need to be fairly up-close and personal to read what's being shown. A scrolling text function, transmitted by most DAB stations and some RDS-enabled FM, gives you key information on what's being played. You wouldn't want to confuse some Chopin for Paganini, would you? It can also be backlit - from the menu section - if you need the characters to stand out.
If you don't like the black-coloured aesthetic the PURE ONE Classic also ships in white and subtle pink.
Setup and usage
Initial setup time is around one minute, which is how long the classic takes to auto-store all the available stations in your area. The stations can then be accessed by either making them presets or by running through them via the central dial.
Referring specifically to DAB, 40 stations were auto-stored. However, out of these 40 less around half were showing with a signal quality of three bars or more (out of six), meaning that a number of audio glitches were heard with low-quality signals. Moving the classic around a 20ft x 13ft room increased the quality of some but detracted from others.
We believe this to be shortcoming in DAB coverage - in Leamington Spa, at least - rather than an inherent fault in the ONE classic, because running the same signal-quality test with a Wharfedale DAB radio yielded even-poorer results.
PURE has had a while to fine-tune (excuse the pun) the control system for its DAB radios and the classic is simplicity itself - we're adamant that anyone from the age of 8-80 can use it without running into difficulty.
The company makes allusions to how power-efficient the ONE range is, and we measured standby power at 1W and operational-draw at 2W. This compares favourably to the Wharfedale's 2W and 7W, respectively, although it will take some 200 hours of usage to make 15p's worth of difference.
