The clue to the Chronos' purpose lies in its Greek namesake. The ancient God Chronos was responsible for the passing of time, and so the Chronos DAB is a bedside radio with alarm clock functions. Its name may be Greek, but its design skips a few centuries back to Egypt. The unusual quasi-pyramidal chassis earned the Chronos the moniker "the DABmuda triangle" among the reviewers here at CNET.
PURE Digital has proved its mettle with a series of impressive kitchen DAB radios, such as the Evoke-3 and the One. We've been consistently impressed by the build quality and performance of the company's designs. But can a bedside radio as small as the Chronos deliver decent DAB reception given the limitations of its form?
Strengths
The only puzzling thing about the Chronos is
PURE Digital's decision to include a manual for the device -- it really
doesn't need one. As DABs go, this was the easiest we've set up in
months. Plug in the power supply (battery power is not an option) and
the Chronos automatically configures itself for you. Negotiating the
controls on the top of the radio is elementary. Buttons are clear and
bright, easy for sleepy fingers to locate.
The aerial is pre-attached in the form of a trailing strand of wire. This can be positioned neatly behind your bedroom cabinet, or trailed nonchalantly across the counter top like a strand of spaghetti. It's possible you may have to manipulate the wire to get optimum reception, but we had no problems with it in our test environment. Aerials like this have been standard fare for bedside FM radios for many years now, and although they're a little unsightly, they're a lot less intrusive than a full-blown retractable. It's strange that this wire aerial works so well, we haven't seen anything but telescopic aerials on the other DABs we've reviewed.
Tuning speed on the Chronos seemed to match what we've seen from the
much heartier PURE Digital Evoke-3, and it trounced the tuning speed of
the separates systems we've looked at. Everything is ready to go after
just a few seconds.
The first thing the Chronos does when it's switched on is to automatically set the date and time -- presumably from the DAB feed. This means you can skip the annoying process of figuring out how to manipulate the controls on the radio to set the time. This is the bane of most radio alarm clock owners. Another advantage of the Chronos system is that if you accidentally unplug your alarm clock, or experience a power cut, the Chronos won't flash 00:00 like most alarm clock radios. Instead, the radio quietly sets itself to local time again. Ingenious.
Android App 
RSS Feeds 
iPhone App 
Newsletters
User reviews5
Add your review
unhappy 30 November 2012
Good: nothing
Bad: akmost everything, it just don' t last two years scrap
Comment: I purchase on and though I bough a good radio. Only to find with a year the CD packed in. they replaced it but it cost me £8 postage. then ten months later it happened again, so I gave up on it. With five months the whole thing stopped working. It's only sat in my bedroom used on average five to six time a week. So it's as it says PURE, PURE rubbish.
Lynnden B 9 January 2007
Good: Variable alarms to split weekend from weekday get-up times
Bad: Display too bright on lowest setting
Comment: Pro reviews were obviously written by people that did not use the alarm at night. The display lights the room up on the dim setting, so I use the manual to shield the light. The volume is too loud on the lowest setting for my liking and as the volume is stepped rather than a smooth transition, the next option is silence!
Robertson radios dealt with a friend's radio alarm clock which had display brightness issues. Pure told me that it would require internal work and they don't do that.
Anonymous 9 October 2006
Good: The style and the four alarm settings and the headphone socket
Bad: The display and the standby power usage
Comment: I have an Evoke 2XT which is superb, and expected the same sort of quality from this. Unfortunetly it does not function well as a bedside clock due to the display being so bright, even on its low setting.
The sound quality is good compared to most clock radios I have heard, but not as good as I had hoped from Pure. It is still slightly tinny and so still sounds like it is a clock radio.
I also don't like the fact that the mains adaptor is always warm. The box says the device has a low power standby, however the device actually uses 2 watts while in standby, which in my opinion is not low power. I have since found out (from Pure) that this is because the same chip powers the radio as powers the clock. Which basically means the DAB decoder is running all the time even when the radio is not on.
See all 5 user reviews