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Electronics : PURE VL-60907UK Siesta, Black DAB Digital Clock Radio
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Rating: 
- OK while it works
My 2nd Pure Siesta in 8 months has just died with the same problem as the last one, the tuner will no longer pick up a radio station in both FM and DAB mode. This isn't particularly useful if you use the radio as an alarm as the alarm comes on and you get no sound to wake you!
When it works it is OK sound wise but no more and the DAB tuner sensitivity is only average too (my Roberts DAB radio pulls in more). Also if you are a snooze button user it is very easy to hit another button instead of the snooze, as they all feel the same, which disables the snooze feature completely. All in all probably the worst consumer electronics purchase I've ever made. I'm now off to look at getting a Roberts clock radio.
Rating:
- Almost perfect
Pure are the market leading manufacturers of DAB radios in the UK. They regularly win plaudits and supertests conducted by the likes of "What Hi-Fi" magazine on the basis of their sound quality and digital tuners. They seem to have succeeded in carrying on this tradition in a combination radio/alarm clock.
My first impression was how good the casing design is. It's nice and compact, which is very important as it has to fit on a small bed-side table. I like the shape, the display screen is very clear and easy to read (and automatically adjusts to current light levels). The buttons have a nice feel to them and are sensibly laid out, with a nice big 'snooze' button right at the front!
My second impression was how good the sound quality is. You can't expect too much from a single compact speaker, and I'm pretty into audio equipment so I perhaps have higher expectations than most, but I was very happy. It's a very nice clean pleasant sound. The bass response is pretty good for such a small unit, but obviously not very deep and rich.
The tuner seems to be very sensitive too. Using a short wire aerial pre-attached to the back, it rapidly tuned in loads of stations and the signal strength meter shows good quality on all the stations I listen to.
It provides a lot of flexibility by allowing you to set up to 3 totally independent alarms at once, which can be set to repeat regularly or only go off once. There's also a sleep timer if you like falling asleep to music, and the volume does go down low enough for this to work well.
Now for the negatives:
- the internal amplifier makes a noticeable click through the speaker when you first turn the radio on, so this is the thing you hear first and wake up to in the morning.
- the volume doesn't seem to fade up slowly to your requested volume when the alarm first goes off, so you can wake up with a bit of a jump.
- you can't set an 'off' time for your alarms; they seem to go off after 1 hour by default.
All in all, I am very happy with this product for the money, but it does lack a bit of finesse in some areas. Perhaps the higher-end Pure Chronos may be more suitable for some people, but I haven't used one so I can't really compare them fairly.
For £45 this product has to get 5 stars - you really couldn't expect it to be any better for the money.
Rating: - Beautiful clean design
I wanted something more effective than my current bleep-bleep-bleep alarm which inevitably just gets put on snooze endlessly, and I noticed my girlfriend is woken by the dulcet tones of Radio 4, which seems so much more civilised that the confrontational dynamic of my morning alarm routine.
I was going to get a plain old FM clock radio but thought I'd dabble with DAB (sorry) and this looked the most beautiful of the lot.
Here are the things I like:
- looks fantastic, and really solid. There's no sense of cheapness about this. (well, for £40 you wouldnt expect that would you?)
- it's smaller than I expected - the front is about 6" across. So doesnt hog valuable bedside table real-estate.
- the display automatically dims or brightens depending on the ambient light. Outstanding!
- the power supply is small and actually built into the plug, like a mobile phone charger. So there's not a trace of horrible mains hum you get with other clock radios.
- it's usb upgradeable! Not sure why I'd care, but apparently I do.
- sound is excellent, with a good sized (mono) speaker with no tinnyness about the sound. Also it has a stereo headphone jack built into the top.
- it makes getting up so much easier.
All in all, I'm really pleased I got this and the doubts I had about spending this much money on an alarm clock evapourated the moment I opened the box.
Rating: - not bright enough at night
not bright enough in the dark
as the previous review have stated this is some quality kit the FM radio picks up a tonne of stations and the RDS names the broadcaster, the DAB and looks of the unit is superb
If you flick around the DAB, you get a birdsongs channel.
On other websites the only complaint i've seen other than 'a not bright enough screen' is that you
"cannot set the alarm to play the radio whilst on sleep mode"
To get around this set two alarms
one at 6.30am set as 'DAB' thus music plays (you don't even have to roll over to press 'sleep' mode),
then set the second alarm at 7am (when you want to get up) to 'tone', thus you can listen to music until the tone cuts in at 7am
PERFECT
Pure sort out the un-visable clock in the dark, and this would be awesome
Rating: - *** Superb Quality DAB Radio Alarm Clock ***
At first glance from the picture and description on the Amazon listing this item appears to be an excellent piece of equipment, and its not wrong! I Ordered mines on free delivery option and it only took 2 days after it was dispatched.
When I received the item the box was larger than I expected but the item itself is pretty compact. Measures around 6 to 7 inches across and about 7 to 8 front to back with the curves at either sides. Its a slick and sexy glossy black. All plastic casing which makes it light. Some may associate this with a cheapish feeling but the last thing I want is a heavy bulky alarm clock so this was ideal.
Setting the item up was a breeze and only took a few minutes and that includes setting the DAB presets, a couple of customised alarms and familiarising myself with the buttons etc. I have read some reviews rating the product down on this but its always going to be a case of personal preference and learning curve, and for each user that may not always be the same.
The time sets itself by the way so no need to set that at all, all you have to do if you want to listen to the radio (FM or DAB) is click the FM/DAB button and then + or - to scan through the stations. Thats all. Nothing particularly difficult about that.
The alarm settings requires more button clicking, this is simply due to variety of options that this product allows when customising your alarm patterns. I personally found it very easy when following the instruction book/guide. I had my alarm set for work during weekdays to wake to DAB followed up by a second tone alarm shortly afterwards. Then a third alarm for weekends so i can have a long rest and wake to the radio, and I dont have to change the settings after that at all unless I decide to change my routine.
With regards to the radio side of things, I purchased the item for the combined alarm clock and DAB radio so I wasnt really interested in the FM radio although it is there as a secondary radio system. However, the DAB was really good in terms of the number of stations I received (being in a good signal area) and with the onboard aerial so i didnt require any additional equipment to get a better signal. Sound quality was rather good, better than I expected. It was crystal clear with the right mix of audio characteristics giving a pleasant listening experience.
Some other reviewers commented on the display being too dim or sorts. I found the display to be perfectly lit during the day and clear to see, very sharp. In the lower light it was ideal as the dark display blended in with the low light and darkness and if I'm in bed then i'm there to sleep, not to check the time every 2 minutes during the night so the only thing I was concerned about was that the display wasnt going to be bright and annoying like on some other clock radios. This was ideal as far as I was concerned.
Overall I would strongly recommend this product to anyone based on my experience with it. All I would say to people is to evalute your requirements for the product you're after then thoroughly look around at differnt items until your happy with the one you're going to purchase.
The only gripe I had regarding this product, and its not really a gripe but a wish to make it more perfect, is they're arent many spaces for presets, only 8 per radio type (8 for DAB and 8 for FM), but given that I have around half a dozen favourites then it accommodated my needs nicely and a few spare slots to fill should I decide to enjoy a scan of the various and numerous stations. I'm glad I bought this item.
- OK while it worksMy 2nd Pure Siesta in 8 months has just died with the same problem as the last one, the tuner will no longer pick up a radio station in both FM and DAB mode. This isn't particularly useful if you use the radio as an alarm as the alarm comes on and you get no sound to wake you!
When it works it is OK sound wise but no more and the DAB tuner sensitivity is only average too (my Roberts DAB radio pulls in more). Also if you are a snooze button user it is very easy to hit another button instead of the snooze, as they all feel the same, which disables the snooze feature completely. All in all probably the worst consumer electronics purchase I've ever made. I'm now off to look at getting a Roberts clock radio.
Rating:
- Almost perfectPure are the market leading manufacturers of DAB radios in the UK. They regularly win plaudits and supertests conducted by the likes of "What Hi-Fi" magazine on the basis of their sound quality and digital tuners. They seem to have succeeded in carrying on this tradition in a combination radio/alarm clock.
My first impression was how good the casing design is. It's nice and compact, which is very important as it has to fit on a small bed-side table. I like the shape, the display screen is very clear and easy to read (and automatically adjusts to current light levels). The buttons have a nice feel to them and are sensibly laid out, with a nice big 'snooze' button right at the front!
My second impression was how good the sound quality is. You can't expect too much from a single compact speaker, and I'm pretty into audio equipment so I perhaps have higher expectations than most, but I was very happy. It's a very nice clean pleasant sound. The bass response is pretty good for such a small unit, but obviously not very deep and rich.
The tuner seems to be very sensitive too. Using a short wire aerial pre-attached to the back, it rapidly tuned in loads of stations and the signal strength meter shows good quality on all the stations I listen to.
It provides a lot of flexibility by allowing you to set up to 3 totally independent alarms at once, which can be set to repeat regularly or only go off once. There's also a sleep timer if you like falling asleep to music, and the volume does go down low enough for this to work well.
Now for the negatives:
- the internal amplifier makes a noticeable click through the speaker when you first turn the radio on, so this is the thing you hear first and wake up to in the morning.
- the volume doesn't seem to fade up slowly to your requested volume when the alarm first goes off, so you can wake up with a bit of a jump.
- you can't set an 'off' time for your alarms; they seem to go off after 1 hour by default.
All in all, I am very happy with this product for the money, but it does lack a bit of finesse in some areas. Perhaps the higher-end Pure Chronos may be more suitable for some people, but I haven't used one so I can't really compare them fairly.
For £45 this product has to get 5 stars - you really couldn't expect it to be any better for the money.
Rating:
- Beautiful clean designI wanted something more effective than my current bleep-bleep-bleep alarm which inevitably just gets put on snooze endlessly, and I noticed my girlfriend is woken by the dulcet tones of Radio 4, which seems so much more civilised that the confrontational dynamic of my morning alarm routine.
I was going to get a plain old FM clock radio but thought I'd dabble with DAB (sorry) and this looked the most beautiful of the lot.
Here are the things I like:
- looks fantastic, and really solid. There's no sense of cheapness about this. (well, for £40 you wouldnt expect that would you?)
- it's smaller than I expected - the front is about 6" across. So doesnt hog valuable bedside table real-estate.
- the display automatically dims or brightens depending on the ambient light. Outstanding!
- the power supply is small and actually built into the plug, like a mobile phone charger. So there's not a trace of horrible mains hum you get with other clock radios.
- it's usb upgradeable! Not sure why I'd care, but apparently I do.
- sound is excellent, with a good sized (mono) speaker with no tinnyness about the sound. Also it has a stereo headphone jack built into the top.
- it makes getting up so much easier.
All in all, I'm really pleased I got this and the doubts I had about spending this much money on an alarm clock evapourated the moment I opened the box.
Rating:
- not bright enough at nightnot bright enough in the dark
as the previous review have stated this is some quality kit the FM radio picks up a tonne of stations and the RDS names the broadcaster, the DAB and looks of the unit is superb
If you flick around the DAB, you get a birdsongs channel.
On other websites the only complaint i've seen other than 'a not bright enough screen' is that you
"cannot set the alarm to play the radio whilst on sleep mode"
To get around this set two alarms
one at 6.30am set as 'DAB' thus music plays (you don't even have to roll over to press 'sleep' mode),
then set the second alarm at 7am (when you want to get up) to 'tone', thus you can listen to music until the tone cuts in at 7am
PERFECT
Pure sort out the un-visable clock in the dark, and this would be awesome
Rating:
- *** Superb Quality DAB Radio Alarm Clock ***At first glance from the picture and description on the Amazon listing this item appears to be an excellent piece of equipment, and its not wrong! I Ordered mines on free delivery option and it only took 2 days after it was dispatched.
When I received the item the box was larger than I expected but the item itself is pretty compact. Measures around 6 to 7 inches across and about 7 to 8 front to back with the curves at either sides. Its a slick and sexy glossy black. All plastic casing which makes it light. Some may associate this with a cheapish feeling but the last thing I want is a heavy bulky alarm clock so this was ideal.
Setting the item up was a breeze and only took a few minutes and that includes setting the DAB presets, a couple of customised alarms and familiarising myself with the buttons etc. I have read some reviews rating the product down on this but its always going to be a case of personal preference and learning curve, and for each user that may not always be the same.
The time sets itself by the way so no need to set that at all, all you have to do if you want to listen to the radio (FM or DAB) is click the FM/DAB button and then + or - to scan through the stations. Thats all. Nothing particularly difficult about that.
The alarm settings requires more button clicking, this is simply due to variety of options that this product allows when customising your alarm patterns. I personally found it very easy when following the instruction book/guide. I had my alarm set for work during weekdays to wake to DAB followed up by a second tone alarm shortly afterwards. Then a third alarm for weekends so i can have a long rest and wake to the radio, and I dont have to change the settings after that at all unless I decide to change my routine.
With regards to the radio side of things, I purchased the item for the combined alarm clock and DAB radio so I wasnt really interested in the FM radio although it is there as a secondary radio system. However, the DAB was really good in terms of the number of stations I received (being in a good signal area) and with the onboard aerial so i didnt require any additional equipment to get a better signal. Sound quality was rather good, better than I expected. It was crystal clear with the right mix of audio characteristics giving a pleasant listening experience.
Some other reviewers commented on the display being too dim or sorts. I found the display to be perfectly lit during the day and clear to see, very sharp. In the lower light it was ideal as the dark display blended in with the low light and darkness and if I'm in bed then i'm there to sleep, not to check the time every 2 minutes during the night so the only thing I was concerned about was that the display wasnt going to be bright and annoying like on some other clock radios. This was ideal as far as I was concerned.
Overall I would strongly recommend this product to anyone based on my experience with it. All I would say to people is to evalute your requirements for the product you're after then thoroughly look around at differnt items until your happy with the one you're going to purchase.
The only gripe I had regarding this product, and its not really a gripe but a wish to make it more perfect, is they're arent many spaces for presets, only 8 per radio type (8 for DAB and 8 for FM), but given that I have around half a dozen favourites then it accommodated my needs nicely and a few spare slots to fill should I decide to enjoy a scan of the various and numerous stations. I'm glad I bought this item.