Pure, the British brand that made its name locally with its market-leading range of DAB+ digital radios, is branching out of receivers as it looks to establish itself as a consumer audio lifestyle brand, rather than simply a supplier of radios.
At the heart of this move is Jongo, Pure’s wireless multiroom speaker system, which has similar functionality to Sonos’ celebrated system, and is set to compete with other new entrants, Samsung, Heos by Denon and LG.
The Jongo range comprises the S3, a rechargeable and portable 360-degree speaker, plus three more speakers (T2, T4 and T6), which are intended to be used in a fixed position and can be wall mounted. There is also the A2, a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi adaptor that can connect to an existing Hi-Fi so that it too can join the network. The Jongo family comes in two colour schemes: Vibrant and Neutral.
Once set up and connected to the home network, smartphones and tablets, user can directly stream audio over Wi-Fi from internet radio sites and Pure’s own music streaming services. Users can also play audio from a broad range of music sites, such as Spotify, Pandora, Rdio, as well as native digital music collections stored on hard drives, but only via Bluetooth.
Pure’s parent company, Imagination Technologies, has developed its own wireless streaming technology that it says greatly improves the sound quality from ‘Wi-Fi Hi-Fi’ audio playback. Called ‘Caskeid’, and pronounced ‘cascade’, this technology can be licensed by other brands to use in rival systems. In this regard, the Jongo is not just a speaker system but also a physical advertisement for the Caskeid technology.
The Jongo S3 is RRP $369, while the 20-watt T2 is RRP $369, the 50-watt T4 is RRP $419 and the powerhouse 100-watt T6 is RRP $599.
