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Other handy features include the ability to trim the station list, to adjust the order in which the stations appear and to leave the backlight on so the Highway's easily visible at night. The unit's software can be upgraded as and when Pure issues improvements or new functions - just connect the Highway to a PC with a Mini USB cable.
The Highway comes with its own windscreen aerial
The unit’s capabilities to not end at DAB, as a line-in jack allows the machine to take digital files from a personal player and send them on to the FM radio in the same way as it does with the DAB signal. Sound quality here isn't as good as it is with DAB, but it does provide a really handy way of using your MP3 player in the car with out the need for multiple fM transmitters.
The Highway can also act as a handheld DAB radio, with around six hours of life from two AA batteries. OK, so this unit is pretty big to carry around with you on a regular basis - it's 122 x 70 x 29mm and weighs 156g - but the sound quality's still pretty good. It makes use of your headphones as an aerial.
Verdict
Pure's Highway, a really easy to install and use package, delivers all the joys of digital radio into a car. Sound quality on DAB is excellent, and the addition of the compatibility with personal music players might seem obvious, but it's no less welcome and no less useful for that. Retailing at around £70, its price is pretty keen too, and much cheaper than ripping your FM receiver out and retro fitting a completely new set-up.
Pure Highway
COMMENTS
I want one
The difference between DAB sound quality and FM sound quality is going to be inaudible over traffic noise. FM is only better when you have a good signal, which I often don't. And DAB vs AM is no contest, even if it's 64kbps mono DAB.
I love the fact that it's got ReVu - I often listen to podcasts in the car off a CDRW and I've lost count of the number of times I've gone to rewind because I didn't quite catch something, only to realise I'm actually listening to the radio and it doesn't do that. Now if they only added a memory card slot so that I could record a good track or an interesting programme that came on, or listed to those podcasts with slightly less hassle than doing the CDRW thing, it'd be perfect.
Shame about the please-smash-my-window-in-the-hope-of-finding-my-satnav-in-the-glovebox windscreen sucker though - any alternative mounting options (other than leaving it to rattle around on the dashboard)?
In London....
FM and AM are both appauling.
At Home, Radio 4 is constantly intercepted by a cr*p pirate station - so bad I even called the mobile number and told them to shut up (in my best middle class RP voice).
In the car in London Radio 5 is impossible to listen to, and while driving north, around the Midlands there's a section where neither the 909 or 693 frequencies will work.
So I bought a freeview TV for the kitchen, for the same price as a DAB radio, and have TV and all the digital radio I want, and a DAB head unit for the car - the talk and sports reception (Radio 4&5) is reception is excellent and interrupted, and while an audiophile would contest the true quality of the music, they wouldn't have the sunroof open and the the wind in their hair while singing along....
Nice looking device though.
@Anonymous Coward
>> Works just fine for me!
Well that's good for you.
Personally, I like to listen to BBC 5Live without interference (as it's only available on AM) and TalkSport (ditto) when I'm in the car (so "online" SIN'T an option.
And I enjoy Planet Rock and BBC 6 and 7....and listening to some classical music on DAB is great coz there's no background noise....!
So, feel free to "put up with" the poorer signal receiving capability of FM and all the "nasties" you get if you live on the fringe for reception - in my neck of the woods, there's not a lot of choice at all on FM.
Personally, I like to have the choice when I'm out and about and to enjoy the benefits....
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