The PURE Digital Legato II is a mini hi-fi system with a DAB radio that can pause and rewind live radio. The Legato II improves over its award-winning predecessor with more powerful speakers and an SD card slot for even more digital fun. At £350, however, it may be too expensive for those merely looking for a digital radio.
Design
The front of the main system is finished with an elegant brushed-metal effect and has a large backlit LCD display. There are three softkeys on each side of the display that correspond to options on the LCD. This works well and reduces the overall number of controls needed on the system.
The rear of the unit hosts a number of standard audio connections, including a coaxial aerial socket, twin auxiliary inputs, an optical digital output and twin speaker connections.
Features
The Legato II has a CD player, digital DAB radio, a backup FM tuner, an SD card slot, a USB port, a digital optical output and several analogue auxiliary inputs. It's about as digitally versatile as it could be without integrating Internet connectivity.
PURE has stacked the radio full of features to make DAB as convenient as possible. Recording radio to an SD card is delightfully simple, with files saved in MP2 format, which works out at 1MB per minute of radio. Total recording time is only limited by the capacity of the SD card you use.
The seven-day electronic programme guide allows you to schedule any show for recording to the SD card, which is simple to use. If you want to catch Edith Bowman's lunchtime show on Radio 1, just click on it in the EPG and choose the SD card record option. When you return home you'll find her entire show as an audio file on the SD card. The same function can also output recordings through the digital optical out if you prefer to record on an external device.
Pausing and rewinding live radio is incredibly simple. You can pause using the built-in memory for about 30 minutes (the actual recording time depends on the bit rate of the DAB broadcast: a fairly standard 128kbps broadcast allows you 26 minutes 20 seconds recording time). If you're listening to buffered radio, you can rewind to the start of the song and record it to the SD card -- live pause and SD recording can work side-by-side.
Along with adding new features to the system in the future, the USB connection also allows you to transfer recorded radio shows to your PC, or put MP3s directly on to the SD card, which sits in the reader on the front of the system, alongside a third auxiliary input.
MP3s aren't sorted by album or artist automatically. Instead, you need to organise them into different folders yourself on the PC. But the good news is that it can read ID3 tags, so at least you know what's playing and it will play albums in the right order. It also supports M3U playlists, allowing for good old-fashioned manual playlist creation, though this can only be achieved using a computer.
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User reviews4
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Dabchick 22 February 2010
Good: Great sound
Bad: It breaks down
Comment: I am a big Pure fan, and was an early adopter of the Pure Legato II. However, it is now only in use as an amplifier...since this is the only bit that works. First there were problems with the CD player not loading certain discs, and then not loading at all. I managed to persuade the retailer to replace my Legato as "not fit for purpose" - this was after a few months. But the replacement model had the same problems...having now passed the 1 year guarantte, I eventually decided to cut my losses and purchased a Sony CD player to plug into the Legato....at least I still have the DAB radio....ah No, that was the bit that went next. So I have a £350 amplifier with a useless CD player and DAB systems that only does FM. What a waste of money - I am bitterly disappointed and as someone with a Pure radio in every room....I am astounded with Pure's poor build quality on this model.
keithc 29 October 2007
Good: Great to look at & lots of useful features
Bad: Constant lound electronic buzzing noise makes it completely unuseable
Comment: I'm hugely disapointed with the Legato, and feel complely ripped off. I bought it for my bedroom for the alarm wake up to radio & DAB, but it makes so much noise I can't use it as intended. I returned it twice and all 3 units had the same problem, a constand loud background hum, rendering it unusable in a quiet room.
Anyway it's now consigned to my noisier kitchen (what a waste of damn money!!) where the humming's not so noticeable, and I'm looking for another make replacement DAB for my bedroom.
Really annoyed & really disapointed.....
technoluddite 28 October 2007
Good: range of inputs and menu access
Bad: short time span to choose menu selection
Comment: Bought this after much comparison with Teac, Denon and Onkyo alternatives. This looked much cooler and had a larger lcd screen for information. Also much preferred the menu selection using rotary dial and press for selection.
Bought the console version to feed into my Kef 104ab speakers and Minimus 7W speakers. Sound quality was superlative.
Disappointed that some DAB stations are in mono.
Original antenna replaced with home made slim jim antenna in my attic which moved my station hit from 18 to 42!
My only downer is that with talk of DAB+ have had no reply from Pure regarding future upgrades either of software or hardware.
CD performance is just as quick as my separates system which is not a cheapo setup.
Startup from standby is a couple of seconds at most not a problem.
I can access and load the SD card from my PC, Mac and Linux computers which is fine.
Stylish, a little bit retro and satisfies all my aural desires!
See all 4 user reviews