Elan BT3

Over the years I’ve purchased many DAB radios in search of the “perfect” one. I own the Roberts Unologic, Fulljoin PPS003, Grundig Micro 75, Imperial Dabman 12, and now the Pure Elan BT3. I’ve never spent so much money on a DAB radio before, but based on my experience with the other radios and their shortcomings, I think I’ve finally found the perfect radio for my needs. I’ve split this review into sections to organise it better.Sound Quality: 5/5The first and most important aspect of any radio is sound quality, because it’s what you have to live with on a day-to-day basis. I rated this radio a 5 out of 5 because it has an equaliser that lets you set custom treble and bass settings – so it can be tailored exactly to my preference. The other radios I’ve tried had either a fixed set of EQs (like Pop, Rock and so on), or no EQ adjustment whatsoever!Available settings are: Treble (-3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 and +3), Bass (same thing, -3 to +3) and Loudness (On or Off). Personally, I listen through Sony in-ear earphones and I found the ideal settings to be Treble +1, Bass +2 and Loudness Off.This radio also has pre-set equaliser settings (Flat, Pop, Rock, News and so on) but none of them sounded quite perfect to me (most of them had excessive bass as my earphones tend to emphasize low frequencies) – which is why a custom EQ is such a neat feature!The sound from the built-in speaker is, in a word, perfect. This is not a small radio, and features a decently large speaker, and it sure sounds like it. The sound is full-bodied, not tinny at all, and very competently fills the room. At full volume, my sound-level meter measured over 80dB at a distance of 15cm. Personally, I use the radio to wake me up every morning. It’s positioned on a high chest of drawers two meters from the bed and I set the alarm volume to level 6. With that setup, it sounds as though the sound is coming from around me in all directions and is quite impressive considering it only has one speaker total.Audio over Bluetooth and aux cable is similarly crisp and clear. So much so that I would consider it a very capable Bluetooth speaker or loudspeaker, in addition to its main role as DAB radio.Build Quality: 5/5The unit feels solid and well-built. The controls are ok, with the exception of the “menu” button on mine that needs to be pressed a little harder to work than the others.Upon disassembly, I was impressed by the build quality of this unit. The front and back halves are held together by 6 self-tapping screws and sealed together with adhesive foam tape (which explains the great bass response of the speaker). The daughter-board containing the DAB module and many of the larger capacitors are held securely to the main board by glue (many inferior radios omit the glue and just leave things floating). The speaker, aux in, USB in, DC in and headphone out connections all connect to the main board via connectors so should be easy to repair/replace; the antenna and the battery cables are connected directly to the mainboard. The empty space between the front and back halves is filled by a block of dense plastic matting - I suspect to eliminate echoes and rattles. All in all solid construction, the most impressive on any radio I’ve disassembled to date.User Interface: 4/5The UI is very intuitive. The colour screen is crisp and clear and very well laid-out. They could’ve made the EQ settings more accessible (as is they need several clicks to get to). Also, I was surprised that it defaults to song info display every time you tune in to a new station. On most of my other radios, it remembers what info I was displaying (eg. signal strength, or bitrate) and retains that setting even when I switch stations.My only significant complaint is that the volume knob/button is too hard to press inwards. This means that you have to hold the radio from the back with your other hand every time you push the knob in to “OK” your selection (eg. when selecting a station). The other buttons are nice and soft to press (especially the power button) which make for a nicer experience.Ease of Use: 4/5I deducted one mark here because the button sequence to change station is 1. Press the “stations” button, 2. Rotate the knob to choose from the list, 3. Push the knob in to select the station. All of my other radios had dedicated buttons to go to next or previous station rather than needing a three-step process.Also, I was unable to find a way to delete a preset station (other than doing a full factory reset). However presets can be overwritten by other stations at will so it’s not a big issue.Other than that, it’s very intuitive and easy to use. The power and source buttons are self-explanatory. The knob is the volume control. Pressing 1, 2, or 3 takes you instantly to preset 1, 2, or 3. Pressing the 4+ button takes you to a menu listing all your presets, then you just use the knob to select the one you want.Similarly, to store a station into 1, 2, or 3 you hold the 1, 2 or 3 button down for 3 seconds. To store a station in any other position, you press and hold the “4+” button for 3 seconds. That opens the “store a station” menu. Then you pick where to store it by turning the knob and pressing it as usual.Reception: 5/5Reception is incredible. In most rooms, I can usually pick up stations just by putting the antenna vertical – no need to extend the telescopic section at all. On my desk near my computer, all my other radios fail to pick up anything, but the Pure Elan has no issues with the antenna fully extended and pointed at the window.Battery Life: 5/5I measured the current consumption with an ammeter inline with the batteries (backlight in “dim” setting), and it was oscillating between 150-200mA. That means that with 4x 2000mAh rechargeable batteries, the predicted battery life will be at least 10 hours, and even longer with 2500 or 3000mAh batteries. I haven’t actually tested a set of batteries to exhaustion, but so far the batter level hasn’t fallen in many, many hours of listening.With the AC adapter connected, battery current is practically 0mA. That means that it neither charges the batteries, nor draws current from them. The switch from battery to AC and vice-versa is seamless, with no interruption of audio.Size and Weight: N/AThis is one of my largest radios, comparable in size to the Roberts Unologic. It’s solidly aimed at being a desk radio because it won’t fit in a typical pants pocket, though I have no problems fitting mine in my backpack with my laptop. It’s quite heavy, at over 400 grams with batteries, but that’s because of the high build quality and powerful speaker.Features: 5/5This radio has DAB, FM, AUX-in, and can pair wirelessly with a phone or laptop and play things over Bluetooth. It also has a kitchen timer (beeps after a set time interval), sleep timer (turns off radio after a set time interval), and two alarms. All these features work well (which believe it or not is a first, compared to all the radios I own, which have trouble e.g. with waking up on alarm).When powered by batteries, the radio is either off or on (no standby mode) so it won’t wake up for the alarm.When powered over AC, a quick tap of the power button puts it in standby mode. In this mode, the radio displays the current time, date, and alarm time, and will wake up for the alarm. Pressing and holding the power button will put it in “off” mode where the display is completely blank.You can set two brightness levels in the menu – “on level” (for when it’s in use), and “dim level” (which it switches to after a settable time interval from last key-press). I set mine to medium and dim respectively, with an interval of 10 seconds.The same levels apply in standby mode, so in my case, the display stays at medium brightness for 10 seconds after I put it in standby mode, then gets dim thereafter, and I can use it as a bedroom clock because the backlight is just bright enough to read the clock in the dark.One of the possible settings for “dim level” is “off” - so you can actually get it to completely turn off the backlight and still be in standby (or on) mode. This is useful if you want to use the alarm (so you have to put it in standby mode, not off) but you don’t want the light to keep you up at night.My one complaint in the area of features is that the USB port is suitable for firmware updates only, not power. This means you have to carry around the dedicated AC adapter for use without batteries. Many of my other radios could be powered and charged over any USB port, which made them more convenient. Considering the AC adapter outputs 6V 500mA, I’m surprised they went down this route as most USB ports these days are more than capable of supplying similar power, albeit only at 5V.

This is a good radio. It replaces an old one which was not picking up all the stations I thought we should be getting. Maybe technology has changed a bit since I started listening via DAB. I have had it a few months now and liked it so much I bought a second one. Sound is OK, not stereo or anything like that but adequate for everyday listening. Not much of a manual supplied with it but you can figure things out by trial and error. The little colour screen provides useful, easily visible information. I haven't used the bluetooth yet but it is useful to have.

Pure Elan BT3 dab+ radio with Bluetooth-Compact and solidly built radio. A very bright and clear colour display. A pleasantly rich sound from it’s single speaker that is easy to listen to and that can be tweaked using the tone controls in the menu.It picks up stations very well to the extent that I do not extend the aerial and also connects to Bluetooth with ease.The only niggle I have is the battery life, if you don’t reduce the brightness of the display in the menu’s then your batteries will drain quickly. I use rechargeable batteries but it is a shame considering the premium price of this product that pure did not make it compatible with their chargepak’sStill, I really like this radio and once you set the menu’s up correctly so that the display dims down after a short time then the battery life is acceptable.

The Pure Elam is an excellent little device. Sound quality is better than expected. The DAB radio is easy to use and good quality. The FM radio is less easy to tune, but a good backup if you're travelling in an area with no DAB signal. I only chose the Bluetooth model at the last minute, but I'm glad I did as this is one of the features I use most - if you're on WIFI then it's so easy to stream music over the internet from your phone - no need to buy an internet radio. The display looks good and has a handy clock, if used as a bedside radio. Good value for money and highly recommend.

I am delighted with this product. The sound quality is clear and I can turn the volume down to no sound at all. The VQ Mini Retro failed to achieve this (plus their adapter point is broken and two new adapters can’t get it to work, but batteries will !!!). A non working VQ radio with precisely 2yrs use at £60 is expensive. The preset stations on the new Pure were done via YouTube video - as the instruction sheet didn’t explain how to do it very well. Nor can I get Classic fm as a preset despite trying several times (it shows up as pty on screen). Gone for Radio Cymru instead as I’m learning Welsh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 which has helped enormously.I was unable to buy this product from Argos or a similar Roberts Ortus from Currys because I don’t have an OTP!!! How they both can afford to turn down trade is bad business on their part. By not being more user-friendly they lost my custom to Amazon. And, in a time of Covid where shops are forced to close they chose to make online shopping harder with the request for an OTP. The OTP is not that secure as it can be hacked.Buying from Amazon was £10 more, but stress-free, easier and meant I had a functioning DAB radio once more. 😊Better still, the radio arrived Thursday instead of Saturday, two days ahead of schedule. Overall, I’m overjoyed with the excellent service from Amazon and the Pure DAB radio is fab too.Diolch o galon, Amazon.

Excellent product. Great sound, super easy to set up and set presets. If you can't get all the stations you expect, extend the aerial as far as possible vertically, and that will do the trick. Sound better than I thought considering size of radio. Love the display, very intuitive product. 100% would recommend. Wish it had a rechargable battery, but not essential. Bluetooth works great, but song info isn't displayed on screen, which would have been an added bonus.