So the new Evoke 3 has a lot to live up to, could it really re define DAB use again and take the drivers seat once more? Our discovery started on Thursday when it arrived in the office, out of the non descript courier packaging emerged a larger unit and one that retained the retro styling that Pure have made their signature. The Evoke 3 is bigger than the Evoke 1 by quite some margin, the 290 x 210 x 120mm unit now comes with dual speakers meaning stereo radio something the Evoke1 and 1XT needed a bolt on speaker to achieve. The LCD screen is also larger and the control panel has grown too mostly to accommodate the buttons needed for the new features that makes the Evoke 3 the leader in DAB functionality.

Styling is a subjective thing and we have to admit to growing a little tired of the retro look, the Evoke 3 in the cherry wood finish is even more retro than the older model (which we have in beech finish) this will match some peoples tastes, but we were secretly hoping for more than a hint of the modern touches exhibited in the Pure Chronos. So externally we weren't exactly bowled over, however the last 2 units we had from Pure did disappoint a bit especially the Chronos which looked stunning yet sounded weak, something we had never expected from a Pure Digital DAB unit.

At this point we should work through each feature and tell you what we thought, but we'll get to that, the key item of business is the sound quality. The main unit of the Pure Digital range has to sound the part!  We quickly fired up the Evoke 3 and after a brief moment of auto tuning (around 30 seconds) we had a whole raft of channels to choose from and opted for Radio One.

The first thing to strike us was the amount of twisting it took on the volume knob to get up to kick ass volume levels, it does get there but you seem to be twiddling for ages. Having arrived at a good listening level our first reaction was one of relief as there was that warmth of sound and well weighted bass that so many DAB units lack. Clearly Radio One wasn't going to provide a qualitative source to test with so we switched round a range of stations from Smooth (formerly Jazz FM) to dare we say Radio 3!

Amongst these listening tests we started to feel that although the sound was much better than almost every unit we have tested including those from Sony, Toshiba and Tivoli, there was something not quite right. Sometimes when we test gadgets the manufacturers will ask if it's a standalone test or a group test, this is often a sign that they are nervous of a real side by side comparison, Pure have never asked this, but weirdly we decided to test the Evoke 3 against the Evoke 1.

The Evoke 3 on its own sounds great, but our concern was around the separation of complicated musical tracks where the bass sounded a bit muddy and seemed to get a bit mixed up with the mid range. Perhaps we were expecting too much from a DAB radio, but then we used the same source (and track) on the Evoke 1 which sounded both warm and yet clear, it was a subtle difference but none the less it was there.

To say we were surprised is an understatement, trying this on multiple stations the results were confirmed by a number of our colleagues. This isn't to say the Evoke-3 sounds poor, it doesn't. It's just that the Evoke-1 has an edge, that extra 10% of sonic quality.

We could at this point get lost in audiophile land, but lets get back on terra firma, for the Evoke 3 has many more tricks inside mostly based around the SD card slot in the bottom of the control panel. The unit ships with a 64mb SD card and when inserted into the unit it acts as the devices memory for all digital audio. The main use is as part of the Evokes Revu system, whereby live radio can be recorded for later listening, either manually, by  timer (20 available) or leaving the unit in record mode so that you can literally rewind live radio. Using the fact that the Pure unit can now see up to 7 days of Radio style EPG's (electronic programme guides) for some stations, you can dial through to find a show in the future and set the Evoke to wake up and record it. It's not quite podcasting but it's plenty for us to make sure we catch the odd comedy show.

This feature works a treat and makes good quality recordings which are easily accessed via the 6 line LCD screen, in fact you can also access MP3 files that you may store on the SD card for replay via the Evoke DAB unit. As always the menu system is a joy to use with a logical layout and a nice action using the rotary knobs to scroll through menus with a press to select items. Our tests with standard MP3 files proved 100% successful with the ID-3 tag data making it over as well, so it could be shown on the 6 line LCD display. MP3 audio quality was good although we did manage to make the unit distort with heavy bass on some Fatboy Slim tracks.

For those who live in marginal DAB coverage areas or travel to areas where DAB has not yet made it, Pure have equipped the Evoke with an FM RDS tuner. It works well as you'd expect with all the features of RDS including station naming and auto search, plus you can store stations by name in one of 100 preset slots which can be used for both DAB and FM stations. Reception seemed ok but not the best FM signal we've heard, the telescopic aerial needs to be fully extended to gain an acceptable sound without hiss.

A rather cool feature brought over from the new bedside radio (Chronos) is the multiple alarm system, here you can set up to 20 individual alarms to wake you either with a buzzer or a DAB station. Each alarm can be set individually or as a group, meaning you can set one time for your Mon - Fri alarm call and a later one for the weekends. In fact the system is so flexible you can even have it set to follow a shift pattern which is quite unique for a bedside radio. Lastly we have the snooze handle, which allows you to just touch the metallic handle on top of the unit to activate the snooze feature and lay in bed longer.

The vast majority of features can be controlled via the supplied remote a new addition for the Evoke-3 and a welcome one. Power is via the supplied AC brick or from either six C cell batteries or a charge pak which is available separately, this should give you about 12 hours freedom form the mains with your Evoke.

A few concentrated days with the Evoke 3 switched on constantly has shown that it is a feature rich quality unit providing the most advanced DAB experience in the UK to date. However there is that nagging question over the muddy bass reproduction, please don't get us wrong the audio quality is vastly better than almost all DAB sets on the market. Weirdly the only way to improve on the Evoke III is to buy the Evoke 1!

Priced at an eye watering £199 it is rather expensive compared to an Evoke 1 at £75, sure you get all the latest features, recording, MP3 replay, FM / DAB/ Digital output / 7 day EPG. However these have to be of value to you to help justify that £199 price tag, if you are after a cutting edge DAB unit the Pure Digital Evoke 3 is the one for you, if you are an audiophile or cheapskate (or both) then the old Evoke-1 still offers plenty.

Published - 26/03/2006

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