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Price comparison:
Pure Legato II
More info: Pure
Size (WxHxD): Main unit - 210x150x240mm; Speaker - 160x250x240mm
Power: 30Wx2 (RMS) into 8 ohms
CD playback formats: CD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3
Connections: 3.5mm headphone output, RF F-connector 75ohms DAB/FM aerial, 3.5mm stereo line-in (front), 2 x dual-phono line inputs (rear), optical Toslink, USB, spring clip speaker terminals
Features: CD player, DAB/FM tuner, SD card slot for DAB recording and MP2/MP3 playback
Plus points:
Great design, tons of features, easy to use
Minus points:
Sound quality is disappointing for the price
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Rather than having brutish space-hogging separates in every room disrupting all that feng shui, it's often much better to plump for a compact micro system. Pure knows this and has thrown its DAB expertise into a new model, the Legato II, which replaces the old Legato system from a couple of years back.
The Legato II's retro chic design is pretty much the same as its predecessor, but that's no bad thing - the smooth facade is extremely slick. This time round you've also got a choice between cherry (pictured), maple or black finishes to suit your pad, all sporting the same brushed aluminium front panel. The main unit is reassuringly weighty, too.
Under the hood there's been a couple of changes from last time round. Power output is now up to 30W per channel, but the main addition is a discreet SD card slot on the front for recording and playing back DAB radio broadcasts in MP2/MP3. Usefully you get a 64MB SD card supplied, although this will only provide around an hour's recording from a 128kbps broadcast (so not quite as useful then).
Elsewhere, there's a couple of phono ins round the back for hooking up external kit, an output for an additional subwoofer, USB slot for future software updates, a digital out plus a mini jack line-in for your iPod/MP3 player which is now handily positioned on the front. Oh, and a slot for your headphones… Phew.
The feature list is equally comprehensive, with a DAB/FM tuner, CD player (that'll handle pretty much any disc) and the usual crop of DAB extras; an EPG (Electronic Programme Guide), ReVu for DAB pause/rewind and Intellitext for news info and the like. Particularly handy is the ability to set up timed DAB recordings onto SD card.
Performance
Set-up is so idiot proof it should come with Jade Goody-approved sticker. Turn the Legato II on and it auto sets the time and even tunes the DAB stations itself (aerial is already attached). Pop in a CD and you're greeted with a dash of glowing blue light round the disc slot, presumably to remind you what you've just done.
The menu system is similar to the one found on its excellent Evoke 3 radio, the large LED display making browsing through the EPG particular is easy. The push-in turn dial on the front works a treat and while most of the systems' functions can be operated from the main unit, we tended to stick with the remote, which was suitably intuitive for our ape-like digits.
But - and it is a big but - play some music and suddenly everything in the Legato II garden isn't quite as rosy. While there's enough audio grunt to fill a decent sized room, the sound is a tad lifeless and lacking in finesse. With The Shins' Wincing The Night Away for example, the usual pop sparkle wasn't there, rather a somewhat unsatisfyingly flat sound in its place.
Granted there's plenty of high-end presence, but down the low-end we found great swathes of detail simply went missing. Crank the Legato II up to high volumes and the problem gets more pronounced. While this isn't such a great concern for radio playback, audio performance really ought to be a little stronger at this price point.
It's a shame, but the Legato II somewhat flatters to deceive. It may pack more features and look smarter than many of its rivals, but it really feels the three hundred and fifty quid has pretty much exclusively gone into these two areas.
