UK-based sound magician Pure, best known for its classy DAB radios, have some new wireless speakers out -- the, er, boldly named Jongo T6, T4 and T2 -- and I went ears-on with them.
They share a boxy, plastic look, with swappable coloured grilles, and they're pretty cheap. The little Jongo T2 is £130, the great big Jongo T6 is £300, and the Goldilocks T4 is £200. None of them have AirPlay, which has probably kept the price down.
The more you pay, the bigger the speaker and the greater power they deliver: the T2 pumps out 20W, the T4 50W and the T6 100W. The Jongo T6 and T2 are out now; the T4 in October.
Pure's new smart phone and tablet app, Connect, runs the show, letting you stream your stored music, free Internet radio and podcasts, and Pure's own Spotify-style subscription service to the Jongos.
The app's only available for iOS and Android, so if you're rocking a Windows Phone or a BlackBerry you're out of luck -- you'd have to stream a simple audio output via Bluetooth, or just use your computer.
You can lie a single unit on its side, or if you splash out on a pair you can stand them up on end. The little Pure logo in the middle of the speaker even spins around so it doesn't look sideways. The stands you use to balance them on are extra, however, with Pure yet to confirm prices (wall mounts will be available too). The cheery swappable covers start at £13 each, with the bigger ones costing more.
The Connect app lets you control all your speakers at once, all round the house, and Pure's desperately proud of its stereo syncing, which it reckons is just as good as using wires. It sounded perfectly good to me in Pure's demo room, but I'd have to test it myself to be sure.
The beefy T6 is certainly capable of filling a room with hot noise, and while the smaller units were clearly tinnier, you'd have to be a real music snob to object to them in your bedroom.
Pure's streaming music service is powered by another UK firm, 7digital, in which Pure's parent company Imagination holds a major stake. It's a similar deal to Spotify: £5 per month for streaming music, £10 for caching on your phone or tablet. Like most such services it has millions of tracks, so it should have what you're looking for.
Have a gander through our hands-on photos above and let me know what you think down in the comments or on Facebook -- are you sold on the simple wireless tech or are you still wedded to your wires?