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“I purchased my Pure Evoke 1 digital radio around eight...”

written by RichardM on 22/06/2004

Good Points
The only real advantages of this radio over a (much cheaper) quality analogue set is improved resistance to interference when used near a PC or other similar device. Listeners who only want to listen to the UK national talk stations may find DAB better than analogue.

Bad Points
Expensive (Overpriced).
Sound quality is poor--worse than FM, and stations are increasingly dropping to lower quality and broadcasting in mono so that more and more stations can be crammed in.
Large, ugly design.
Mono speaker which distorts at high volume.
Reception is poor. 'Bubbling mud' and dropouts occur seemingly at random even in high signal strength areas.
Mains only (batteries would only last minutes anyway due to high power consumption).
Causes considerable RF interference to nearby analogue radio equipment.
DAB is actually a step backwards for radio.

General Comments
I purchased my Pure Evoke 1 digital radio around eight months ago, and have given this radio a fair test, both in the home (and other peoples homes), and even in the car. I have just recently given the radio to my father. I am distinctly unimpressed by the Evoke, and DAB in the UK. Read on to find why.



When you buy an Evoke, the manufactures (Pure) urge you to return an enclosed warranty card to them with your views of the radio. Clearly many purchasers have done this, judging by the number of carefully selected snippets along the line of "great radio, excellent sound quality", etc, published on their website. Many of these flattering one-line quotes seem to me to be written by people who have probably never used a good modern quality portable FM radio, such as the ones I use, and perhaps they do not have much experience of other radios to compare the Evoke to. Well, I returned my card but they didn't quote any of my views in their publicity material. I wonder why ? Well, hopefully this review might go some way to balance out some of these IMO rather uninformed opinions.





I suppose I listen to radio a lot more than most people, at home and at work. I use several radios, all Sony units. The cheapest one cost around £10. I have owned this one for nine years and listen to it in the bathroom. In the bedroom I have an RDS equipped model from 1997, which I use as an alarm clock as well as a radio. The newest, a stereo model CFD- S520L with a CD player, cost £50 recently. I listen to this in the kitchen, where its many presets for the radio stations and a remote control are very useful features. At work I use an ICF703L which cost £23 three years ago, and I have used it every working day for nine hours + a day in some rather less-than-perfect operating conditions, and the set is still going strong today. So hopefully I do understand what an analogue portable is like in use, and am in a good position to know what I should expect from a portable radio! You will note that all these radios cost considerably less than the Evoke, and I will tell you now that all of these radios are in all practical terms better than the Evoke. They are not only much less expensive and better featured, but they far out-perform the Evoke in terms of sound quality, build quality, reception and durability, and have the advantage of being battery powered for portability, which is a feature I need from any portable radio.



The Evoke has taught me that DAB is a poorly implemented system in the UK. This is a well documented subject and can easily be read about from a search on Google, so I shall not dwell too much on the system itself, such as the 'false-choice' of stations on there, the ever-diminishing bit-rates of the stations meaning poorer sound quality than on FM and in some cases, stations which sound little better than medium wave stations; stations being dropped to mono so that even more junk stations can be crammed in, etc. Instead I shall stick to specifics about the Evoke itself. Although I do urge anyone new to DAB to research the above issues BEFORE making a purchase, and at the very least, not to believe the marketing hype of 'CD quality' which is an absolute lie.



For a start, reception is simply not good enough. Even in a good signal area where the set shows a very low signal error, the sound is prone to seemingly random distortions that sound like bubbling mud, or worse still, total dropouts of the audio which can last several seconds. The result is not only unpleasant and extremely annoying, but listening to the broadcast becomes impossible. Whereas on an analogue radio , interference usually manifests itself as static or crackles, but the difference is that you would still usually be able to make out what was being broadcast under the interference. I am not saying FM is brilliant-it isn't, but I can always guarantee I will be able to listen to all of my favourite programmes from start to finish, whereas on DAB I simply couldn't, and on several occasions I had to switch back over to FM mid-way through a programme for this reason. This is a fairly severe fault inherent in DAB I would say. You will probably find reception is fine one day, but the next you have problems receiving either an acceptable signal without the 'mud', or even the same stations at all, for no obvious reasons. And very slight changes to the position of the radio affect reception greatly-you will most likely need to experiment frequently with where you place the Evoke to get satisfactory reception. .



Sound quality of the Evoke is not as good as my Sony ICF703L . The speaker in the Sony appears to be a much better quality full-range item, and the set also benefits from a tone control. The Evoke has no tone control, which is a shame as there is not enough treble, and the overall sound is flat and lifeless, and about as wooden as the Evokes case. Music really does sound horrible on the Evoke, even on a 160kbs station. Comparing the two radios side-by-side on the same station, you would think that the Evoke had a layer of hardboard nailed over its speaker. I guarantee the much cheaper Sony is far superior in this regard. Also, turning up the volume high on the Evoke induces the bubbling mud sound, so it would seem that this creates interference within the receiver itself.



Like all current portable DAB radios, the Evoke is large and ugly, with a cheap, 'knocked-up-in-a-shed' appearance. I didn't grow to like it. The wooden case is not as practical as plastic and has nasty sharp edges and corners.



Tuning stations in is a rather laborious task as when scrolling through the list of available stations, many stay on the screen despite turning the knob several clicks. I can only assume this is a design fault, as I have read of others with the same problem. Scrolling through the whole list could take some time, certainly much longer than I can tune a station on an analogue dial. Another step backwards...



The top and bottom is this: FM radio is a tried-and-tested system. It is simple technology and radios are cheap and durable, and sound good. There is no need for this over-complicated system. Let's face it, very few of the DAB-only stations are actually worth listening to anyway, so why not stick with analogue and save your money? On paper DAB might look good, but my fairly extensive practical tests have proved otherwise. It is simply inferior in nearly all everyday practical uses. DAB is a classic case of one step forward, two steps back. As a product it is sub-FM, and can really only be taken seriously as a medium wave radio service replacement. As such it is overpriced, and I suspect its true worth to be around the £20-25 mark, which I am sure these DAB sets will fall to when the quantities of scale effect kicks in, as always happens with new technology. Or when the enough of the general public become aware of how bad DAB really is and refuses to buy them, one of the two...



One feature of note is the two-year warranty you get with the Evoke. From what I've read regarding its reliability, you may well have cause to resort to it, so do save all the packaging and receipt should you get one. Better still, buy the Sony ICF703L for less than a third of what the Evoke costs. Save yourself a lot of money and grief.



It's all such a shame as digital radio should be so much better than this.