Product Reviews

DAB is getting a drubbing right now.

Big radio groups like GCap are backtracking on the medium and shutting down stations, both national and local. And prestigious outlets like The Guardian and FT are casting doubt on the value of the 20-year-old technology. As MacUser went to press, there was even talk of a digital radio crisis meeting of all the top broadcasters desperate for something to finally make the public sit up and take notice.

We wonder whether Pure was invited along. Probably not - but it should have been. It has long been the UK's top DAB radio maker. It blazed a trail with a strictly limited run of 200 test units at the turn of the century. And these were so well built and ahead of their time that they're still going strong. We know - we've got one.

That model's great-great-grand-offspring is the low-power, eco-friendly Chronos iDock, which sounds far better and feels more plasticky than the pictures would have you believe.

But it's not just a radio: it's an iPod dock and alarm clock too, with first-class menus and a bright, easy-to-read display that's discreet enough to dim to nothing when not in use. There's just one shortcoming as far as we can tell - the absence

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of adaptors for the iPod touch and third-generation nano, as every other Dock insert comes bundled in the box.

Sound quality and reception were both first class, on one condition - that we didn't use it in the office. While testing on a desk at MacUser, there was a slight background hiss; however, on a bedside table at home it was crystal clear and picked up stations from well beyond our local area, despite the aerial being a flimsy-looking black wire that we traced up the wall and stuck up using Blu-tack.

Autotuning was done quickly and simply, and the clock was set as soon as we plugged it in, making this about as no-nonsense as you could want. The menus rival an iPod for simplicity, while setting an alarm requires only that you step through a series of one-line options, picking how you'd like to wake up (DAB, FM, iPod or tone) and, if you chose the radio, opting for either a preset or whatever you were listening to when you last switched it off. The snooze button, a slightly tacky silver bar above the screen, is a little smaller than we're used to but still easily slapped in a morning half-haze.

Sound quality might not be your first thought each day but given that you may want to use this device as a regular radio, it really should be.

The speakers give reasonable separation, being angled outwards on two front corners of the triangular case, and the sound spectrum is broad, with bright highlights and a fair bass. It wouldn't rival a hifi with a separate sub-woofer, but then you're not paying enough for that.

If you got the impression we liked the Chronos iDock, you'd be right. We question some of the materials Pure has chosen in its construction, but can't fault the interface, tuning or performance. Bye-bye crackly FM. Good morning crystal clear DAB...