Pure Digital DMX-60

I bought my wife a Pure digital radio at a time when we thought that at last a British manufacturer was taking on the oversea competition and winning. Excellent sound and apparently well made.

On the strength of that purchase I replaced the old micro hi-fi in our kitchen with a Pure DMX-60. It had one feature in particular that I was keen on, the ability to record onto an SD card, so it could be set to catch favourite programmes. At £229 from John Lewis it was expensive, but as I expected we would not need to buy another one for many years I felt that the outlay was justified.

How wrong I was!

After about two years of light use the CD failed. It would neither open nor close, nor would it play the CD that by then was imprisoned inside, instead making a nasty grinding noise, as though the drawer had somehow jammed shut. This happened whenever the unit was switched on, or when using the 'wind back to the beginning' feature on the radio.

As the DMX-60 was out of guarantee I contacted Pure to ask for advice on getting it repaired. Their answer was typical, as I now know, saying as spares were no longer available they could offer me a discount on a new model. In other words mine was scrap! As the discount was derisory, I decided to keep using the radio part and to put up with the noise from the CD player.

Then, a few months ago, the radio stopped working, endlessly cycling between trying to boot up and tune in and returning to the opening screen, as though the power had been turned off. Each cycle made the CD player re-activate, followed by another 20 seconds of grinding.

Seeing that I had nothing to lose, as by now the whole unit was useless, I took off the casing, with the intention of disconnecting the CD, so that at least I would be spared the annoying noise, and perhaps improving the chances of getting the radio part to work again. So, having found the small connector block I pulled out the tiny plug and replaced the casing.

To my delight the radio booted up, only to crash a minute or two later. Next time it stayed on for perhaps half an hour before crashing again. After several more attempts it stayed on all day. Following that episode I left the radio on permanently, lest the old problem recurred. The only snag was the audio input no longer worked, which was a pity as I had been using it to play tracks from an external MP3 player, to make up for the loss of the CD function.

To see if there was a way round the loss of the input function I contacted Pure to ask if they could help, ideally by providing a wiring diagram, so I could work out how to isolate the CD player and restore the audio input.

Their reply was about as helpfully unhelpful as one could imagine. Here are some extracts:

(quote)It is Pure Policy to not give out Schematics or supply spare parts for our radios to anyone other than the dedicated repair service centre (unquote) and (quote) Due to this, I do not have the relevant information available to me to give out to the public. I can refer you to our Out of warranty Service Centre who have some more options available to you. If a repair of your product is possible then the Out of Warranty team will be able to quote you the cost and timescale of this service. If however the parts are unavailable or a repair is not possible, then they are able to offer you a brand new product together with a fresh 2 year warranty (inclusive of VAT and postage) at a reduced price(unquote)

The latter, however, only applies to Pure's current products, so as the DMX-60 is obsolete that option is not open to me, and anyway Pure had already told me previously that spare parts were unobtainable!

Following a power cut two days ago the radio has reverted to recycling and nothing I have been able to do will make it start again. It is therefore finally destined for the recycling bin. I will replace it with a much less expensive Sony that will make up for lack of functionality with vastly superior reliability.

Sad to say some of the components used by Pure are unfit for the purpose, leading to many dissatisfied owners recounting their experiences here and in other forums.

In the light of my own experience I would strongly recommend anyone thinking of buying a Pure product to look elsewhere.

nice to look at.Sounds good, but very unreliable(skips cds) even after cleaning and being sent a new system. Also i have six speakers in my loft.So not a happy bunny.I DID MY SHOPPING AND HOME WORK THROUGH FEEDBACK AND ENDED UP WITH DUFF UNITS. Our friends down the road also have a bad dmx 50.Ours was a 50 untill pure were good enough to exchange it for a black 60(still no good).

I really looked into the different Hi Fi's like this and I'm really glad I bought the Pure Digital DMX-60. The Set up couldn't be easier.Sound quality is great for a system like this-really Gutsy if you know what I mean and it looks good.The menu is easy to navigate and well thought out.I bought it from Peter Tyson on line and the service was perfect,paid just over £200 inc delivery.