PURE Digital Evoke-1XT Marshall Edition review: PURE Digital Evoke-1XT Marshall Edition

You've got to hand it to PURE Digital, the Evoke-1XT Marshall Edition is one rock 'n' roll radio. It's the perfect combination of a PURE Digital radio with Marshall amp styling.

8.3

PURE Digital Evoke-1XT Marshall Edition

The Good

Styling; sound quality; ease of use; portability; display.

The Bad

Lack of bass and treble controls.

The Bottom Line

A brilliantly designed digital radio that will suit anyone who wants a bit of rock 'n' roll in their kitchen, study or bedroom

The Marshall Edition is essentially the same as PURE Digital's Evoke-1XT, which means it's small, light, easy to use and perfect for moving around the house.

Strengths
The most important feature of this radio is that the volume knob goes up to 11 -- it may not actually make the volume any more ear-piercing, but at least you can boast that it goes 'one louder' than the competition.

At the back of the radio there's a connector for an optional extra speaker to give you stereo sound. There's also a jack to connect the radio to an external amplifier, which could come in handy if you don't have a DAB separates system and want to hear the extra radio stations through larger speakers. There is also a headphone socket and a USB connection, which can be used to update the radio's firmware.

Line out, headphone, USB and a port for a second speaker are at the rear

On the front of the radio there are the usual controls for volume and station presets. Tuning in the radio is delightfully simple -- you just twist the 'tuning' control and the station names will scroll past. When you find the one you want you just press the tuning button and the radio will tune the station in automatically. There are six programmable buttons that allow you to store your favourite stations and recall them at the touch of a button.

We really liked the way the Marshall Edition sounded. It did a great job with DAB, despite the very high levels of compression present on most radio stations. It only has one speaker, so sound is mono, but that's not a problem for this radio as it's intended for small rooms, such as kitchens and bedrooms.

Weaknesses
We were disappointed by the lack of treble and bass controls on the Marshall Edition. This wouldn't make much difference to the built-in speaker, naturally, but it would be welcome for headphones.

Unlike some DAB radios, there's no EPG, although the screen is too small to make including one much use anyway.

While there are six preset buttons on the radio, a deal has clearly been done with rock station Planet Rock, whose logo appears on the front of the radio -- this station is on position number one and can't be removed. This does still leave you five presets to set up as you wish, though -- it's annoying, but hardly a deal breaker.

Conclusion
This stylish little radio is great fun and a worthy addition to your kitchen, study or bedroom. If you love rock 'n' roll or Spinal Tap, then its styling and Marshall branding will almost certainly give you a little chuckle every time you look at it.

Sound from the radio was great too, with just enough bass to stop it from sounding cheap and tinny, something that can affect radios of this size. We would have liked to see the addition of bass and treble controls, but for its intended purpose we can see why PURE Digital doesn't include them.

At £100, this isn't the cheapest digital radio on the market, but it is very cool, works like a dream and it rocks. The bonus is, if 10 isn't loud enough for you, there's always 11.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Kate Macefield