You’re looking for something more advanced than one of the greatest DAB radios. Yes, you want radio, but how about using Spotify to listen to music and podcasts? The Pure Evoke Home is a one-box speaker from DAB experts Pure that delivers an excellent line-up of sources. DAB radio, Internet radio, Spotify Connect, and Amazon Music are all represented by icons on the device’s colorful LCD, which comes up on top of the white or black chassis.
Classic music fans get special consideration. Not only can you attach a record player – or anything else with a 3.5mm connector – but the Evoke Home also has a CD player. Compact CDs, indeed! Do you recall them?
Design-wise The Evoke Home wireless speaker is acceptable, but not exceptional. At least, not for the amount of money requested. The soft-touch volume dial is always lit up by white LEDs, which is distracting in a dimly lit environment, and the (far too many) buttons at the top of the gadget are small and have difficult-to-read labels. The Undok app, which seemed a little uneven during the initial set-up, adds to the feeling that the design was rushed. There are no options for multi-room or stereo pairing.
The Pure Evoke Home largely satisfies in terms of audio performance, with good bass and treble quality that extends to songs streaming via Bluetooth, which was surprising (though you do have to turn the volume up). However, with less mid-range than we desired and volume steps that are too far apart, the Evoke Home comes across as a fine, but a not fantastic, device that is simply expensive.
Pure’s latest Evoke collection of connected digital radios, was launched in November 2021.
The Pure Evoke Home is the most expensive product in the lineup, and it begin to get available from December 2021. Pure Evoke Play (£249.99) and Pure Evoke Spot (£179.99) are also available. All share the same basic functions and differ primarily in speaker size while the Evoke Play has a carry handle and the Evoke Home has a CD player.
The Pure Evoke Home appears to be a serious, clear, and elegant one-box speaker. It measures 108 x 184 x 363mm and weighs 3.9 kg. Its dimensions taper towards the front to emphasize the size of its speaker grille. This sits in front of the Evoke Home’s two 20mm soft dome tweeters and two 3.5 inch woofers.
That grille is made of recycled wool that is ‘eco-certified’ and ‘nearly odorless,’ which is always good to know. The flip-up 2.8-inch LED color screen is also a great touch. There are a few buttons underneath the display to assist you to navigate it, which isn’t a touchscreen.
You can use those buttons to change music sources, set alarms, and timers, among other things. But it’s far easier to do so with the Undok app. At this price, the LCD panel should be an auto-dimming OLED screen, albeit if you can’t bear the light leakage, you can fold it down during music playback.
The rest of the controls are on the speaker’s top, with playback buttons and a CD slot in the center, and a soft-touch dial on the right end. The latter is typically used to regulate volume, but gestures can also be used to mute the speaker and perform other functions. When you turn on the Pure Evoke Home, it functions as an on/off switch as well, but it is backlit by bright white LEDs. It’s a little harsh in a room with soft lighting, but there’s nothing you can do about it this time.
The Pure Evoke Home is mostly a streaming device, so it’s a one-box solution, it does include a few wired choices. The Evoke Home has a 3.5mm minijack for connecting anything – most likely a record player – and a small rear panel with a headphones socket.
Although it has a CD player, the Evoke Home is primarily a streaming device. There are no surprises there, but the way it all comes together is somewhat unsatisfying. It has shortcuts to DAB Radio, FM Radio, Internet Radio, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podcasts, Bluetooth, CD, and AUX on its pop-up screen. Four of these necessitate connecting the Evoke Home to a Wi-Fi network.
Sadly, connecting the Evoke Home to a home’s Wi-Fi network is overly difficult; entering a Wi-Fi network’s password using the pop-up screen is impossible. The free Undok app, despite featuring a ‘connectivity helper,’ advised us to look for the IP address in the settings. Finally, it launched a wizard, which was completed properly, but even though there were no issues, it informed us that the Pure Evoke Home was not connected to the Wi-Fi network.
We started the Spotify Connect app after using the Undok app to control the Evoke Home, only to be directed to a website. It didn’t work and wasn’t necessary because the Spotify app handled everything. Undok is a terrible choice that gives the Evoke Home a shabby air.
In testing, there were encountered two minor difficulties with the Pure Evoke Home. The first was intermittent network outages that rendered Wi-Fi-related functions like Spotify Connect, Internet radio, and the Undok app inoperable. The second issue was a snagged two-prong power wire that would occasionally become unplugged from the back.
The dual 20mm soft dome tweeters and two 3.5-inch woofers at either end of the chassis provide a claimed 100W of power to the Evoke Home.
If you sat directly across from it, the soundstage was much more dynamic than if you sat to one side.
Surprisingly, the Pure Evoke Home set plays medium-quality music. However, you can change this in the Undok app’s settings to ‘high’. There is also some quick equalizer presets to choose from, including pop, rock, jazz, and other genres, as well as very basic bass and treble adjustments. None of them seem to make a significant effect.
The Pure Evoke Home exhibited decent bass levels and plenty of treble detail. When it played with a selection of songs via DAB, Spotify Connect, and Bluetooth, but not much in the way of a mid-range. We did notice that the volume jumps are a little too large; you may go from too quiet to too loud in a single press, which isn’t ideal for late-night listening.
If you listen to most of your music through Spotify Connect or Amazon Music in terms of comfort and sound quality, the Evoke Home will be a great choice for you.
If you still have some compact discs lying around, the Evoke Home’s pop-in CD drive is a great way to bridge the gap between generations.
Because the Evoke Home doesn’t support Apple AirPlay or Google Chromecast streaming. You won’t be able to stream in high quality from your smartphone without fussing with software.
It’s tough to tell the difference between the small light grey buttons. They have white icons on them that are small and difficult to read in anything but direct sunlight.
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