This is an excellent and fun DAB radio reminiscent of an early 50s Marshall guitar amp. Sound quality is very good and powerful with minimal distortion due, no doubt, to 7W RMS into 3 inch drivers in ported enclosures (a lot of radios manage with about 1W RMS and 2 inch or less speakers with very inefficient closed back enclosures). Reception seemed quite good, pulling in all the stations available in my area with high signal quality with the whip antenna fully extended. The additional speaker gives you detailed stereo as well as a boost in power output. It has inputs for auxiliary equipment via a standard 3.5 mm jack socket, an output at line level and headphones also via similar sockets as well as the socket for the auxiliary speaker. The build quality is sturdy and the display clear. The eternal power pack is built into the mains plug and is very compact. The covering of black vinyl is strong and there are no edges visible to come loose. In addition, although all DAB radios have their complexities, this one is easy to tune once you've figured it out from the very clear instructions. There are just five directly available presets with another 25 via a press button and sequential knob selection, they cover FM and DAB so no need to change bands when using them. Textscan means that scrolling text can be paused and controlled as well as stored. It has a kitchen timer, an alarm which is loud enough, and a sleep timer. You can get the radio to come on instead of the alarm, with a station of your choice, in the alarm mode. The alarm cannot be accessed from battery power however as this mode switches the radio off rather than to standby.
What does it lack? Well there's no tone controls so you can't boost bass or treble when listening quietly. It has no proper iPod dock so you have to rely on the auxiliary socket and the iPod display and controls. There are no AM wavebands. There is no external aerial socket, which is odd considering that the earlier version had one into which the whip aerial plugged, the aerial on this one is a screw in fixture. There are no additional DAB features like traffic and so on, just basic station selection with the text display. There is no cable management for the extra speaker but this is all too common with portable gear which seldom has any means of controlling the leads which dangle therefrom and get in the way, sometime creating a safety hazard. There is no provision for standard batteries or standard rechargeables and the specific rechargeable is a bit pricey, although probably cheaper than non rechargeables in the long run.
I give it four stars because of these minor criticisms and the fact that, for the price, it is rather a basic set, although for me this has the advantage of no nonsense operation as I find most of the usual DAB features quite irrelevant.
So a basic set, a bit over priced, but with a high power and quality output and a very sturdy build.
PURE EVOKE-1S Marshal, Portable DAB/FM Radio with Unique Marshall Styling for EVOKE-1S Marshall