We should have known better as anything we get to review from Pure like the Evoke Flow tends to have been thought through and the tacky widgets removed giving a more HiFi like product and losing some of the chintz that far eastern manufacturers seem to adorn gadgets with (have you seen their cars?). Unboxing the Evoke Flow didn't provide any major surprises it looks like an Evoke radio and quite similar in style to the Marshall edition they launched a couple of years back, but it's what is inside that matters.

We powered up quickly and first impressions are good, the black styling contrasts nicely with the new yellow OLED screen which bathed the kitchen in a soft warm glow. Soon we were up and running and the Flow had found the full set of available DAB radio stations and could of course be tuned to FM if we fancied some retro listening (how times have changed). Audio quality was as one could expect top notch with that warm yet not muddy sound that anyone who has an Evoke series will know and love. Perhaps the only surprise is that Pure have shipped an MP3 / Internet radio with only a single mono speaker, we know the Evoke original on which it is based is a mono device but when playing MP3 this could be a little annoying, there is of course an add on extra speaker for around £30.

However our review was to concentrate on the new converged features and while the Pure range has been open to playing MP3 files before this is the first to ship with home server software and be WiFi equipped for podcasts and internet radio. First up we had to get the Evoke Flow hooked up to our WiFi network, the Flow supports both 802.11b and 802.11g with WEP and WPA/WPA2 encryption and despite being a bit fiddly to set-up with the available front panel controls we were online in just under 5 minutes.

To partner the Internet radio ability of the Evoke Flow, Pure have launched the "lounge" which is in essence a web portal where you can browse for stations, have them recommended and store them as your favourite. This is the only practical way of finding stations as the front panel of the flow and its limited screen size isn't at all suited to browsing and looking for stations let alone data entry. Once you have put some streaming stations in the lounge they are easy to find as your device syncs to your lounge account and hey presto internet radio, we were soon listening to Mr Fine wine at WFMU in the kitchen.

Pure promote Podcasts and "listen again" type services however these are not downloaded to the Flow unit, they are streamed directly either from the home server (more on that in a minute) or directly from the online source. This worked fine with the BBC listen again stations but not all services can maintain the real-time rate required as they are really meant for downloading which can be a bit stop start. The home srver software is available as a download and works with the Evoke Flow, we were a bit worried what abomination Pure would have used or even worse written! but our fears were allayed when we found it it was good old Twonky media server which we already had running. This is simple to set-up on a Windows or Linux machine and the Pure Flow works well giving you access to all the stored MP3 files on your home server and streaming them to the Flow, navigation is good but if you intend to use this feature you might want to buy the option remote control to save leaning over the kitchen sink too much.

There are a couple of other options apart from the extra speaker and remote control, the major one is the charge Pak which is a £30 option and this should give you a 15 hour pass to roam without the plug top power adaptor that comes as standard. Pure claim that this is a very environmentally friendly battery and indeed the whole unit is designed to be recycled and have a minimal carbon footprint, which is comforting if you like to hug trees and not chop them down. There is also an optional iPod dock with universal mount which can connect to the aux inputs of the flow.

Our tests continued to prove that pure has built a good converged product, we love the new touch buttons and the OLED screen is a vast improvement over the older models, perhaps another colour would be nice but yellow is ok. The unit has a glossy finish and as such seems to be a magnet for grubby paw prints, so you'll be cleaning it on a regular basis but it does look great. Build quality is good too with the unit feeling very robust and well put together, there are many old favourites like the snooze handle which is the main way to silence the inbuilt clock alarm. In fact you have to nudge yourself to remember that this is a fully featured Evoke radio with FM with RDS, DAB, Alarm clock, USB, audio I/O connections and now WiFi internet radio / podcasts and a home server.

Pure have really hit a winner with the Evoke Flow, it has become a firm favourite in the office and we now use the online features as much as we used to tune to DAB radio, the beauty is after a while this is as natural as listening to the radio and that is very sweet indeed.

Priced at around £130 we really cant grumble when you get this much tech and a quality build, perhaps we'll even forget about the kitchen sink requirement.

Published - 04/05/2009

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