Highway 600

I've been experimenting with ways to listen to other than just FM radio stations in my (older) car which came equipped with basic Bluetooth (for mobile calls only) and only an AM/FM radio.Until recently, I was streaming stations to my phone and connecting them to my in car audio system via a Bluetooth dongle/FM transmitter - this worked but was obviously using data. With a few long journeys on the horizon I wanted a better solution.I had researched this sort of system previously but was a little apprehensive about the fitting of the auxiliary aerial and grounding it. Then I watched the excellent video produced by Pure and it looked so simple I thought I would give it a go.The Pure 600 was, for me, *the* solution for a simple, straightforward way to bring DAB radio to my car via an existing USB port and auxiliary 3.2mm jack. There is also an option to tune the Pure 600 to an empty channel on your car audio system and use an FM connection if you do not have the aux jack. The Pure 600 can also link (via Bluetooth) to your phone so that you can make and receive hands free calls or play music stored on your device.Out of the box, the Pure 600 looks and feels like a quality product. The box contains all the fittings that you're likely to need to fit and route cables around your vehicle - receiver, controller, mic and a good length of cable. And fitting really was a doddle - I estimate 20 minutes from sitting in the car to a fully installed system listening to Planet Rock!For me, fitting was easy - choose a mount point for the receiver and aerial, connect the receiver to the aerial and mic and route the cables to where they need to be. In my car, the receiver (a small black box roughly 50mm x 40mm) sits nicely on the tinted dark band at the top of the screen so it is almost invisible. The aerial is delicate, self adhesive and equally innocuous. I mounted this vertically, but with hindsight I think I should have gone for a horizontal orientation, also behind the dark strip. Earthing was easy (the aerial has a 'tail' which is magnetic for this purpose) and apparently earthing is optional but highly recommended for best performance; reception is adversely affected without an earthed setup.The unit is controlled via a small wireless controller which can be mounted in a convenient location in the vehicle. Preferably out of reach of the other half! The controller is basic but that doesn't worry me - essentially, once you're tuned it is very rare that you will need to touch the controller.Once all set-up and powered-up the system will auto-tune. Initially, I had 83 stations to choose from which is more than adequate! Pairing with my phone was easy and overall I am very very pleased with the system. Music quality is great from both DAB and the 'phone and calls are clear. One nice thing to note is that you can control playback of music on your device from either the phone or the wireless controller.DAB reception seems very stable - we have a noticeable black-spot in my area and this affects the native DAB reception in the other half's very modern car. It also affects the Pure system - anecdotally, the Pure system was affected for a longer period compared to my wife's car but this is the only time that I have noticed any drop in reception quality.Overall - a great way to bring DAB radio and quality sound to your car.Highly recommended.

Delighted with this purchase. I love my car but I don't love that it wasn't blessed with dab radio, during a recent trip to the coast I was left all week with barely any radio as the FM signal was so poor. The vauxhall Bluetooth calling feature is also awful and can rarely understand what I'm asking it to do. So this item was bought to not only play digital music but to also make calling easier .Firstly the pure highway 600 is easy to install. I watched a YouTube video rather than read the instructions as I found this easy to follow. The cables all tucked away neatly under the trim along the roof and down the door seals and under the carpet.My car does have an aux inlet but in the end I set mine up via the cars FM frequency as for whatever reason it just seemed to sound better that way .The setting up of the console was straightforward and the unit quickly found 97 digital radio stations. I am now able to listen to my favourites - Absolute, virgin , radio x etc . The only slight installation problem I had was that the sticky pad on the back of the unit stand wasn't sticky enough to stick to my dashboard. I got around this by using some contact glue I already had in the house .I downloaded the pure app onto my phone and it now gives me the option of playing music via my Spotify account. Even better I can now ask my phone, via Google to make phone calls or play songs for me- no more arguing with the vauxhall voice recognition system which can't understand my northern accent .The only slight change I'd like to see to this item is for the on screen display to remain on while in use rather than fade off as soon as you've selected your station, but I suppose this is to lengthen the life of the batteries .All in all a great item, well designed and works as it should, giving you many more music options for your car . Highly recommended if your car is an old school FM radio only . For the offer price it's especially good .