Pure Jongo T2 review

Pure started its expansion from DAB radios into multi-room audio with the Jongo S3, a portable speaker that you can pick up and carry anywhere. It might have been great for portability, but not everyone needs to take their music on the move. The company has now widened the range with the Jongo T2, jettisoning the battery to bring the price down for a more permanent place in the home.

The Jongo T2 looks much more like a traditional speaker than the S3, being both larger and wider. It’s still compact enough to fit on a bookshelf, but you’ll have to accommodate the power cable. The cloth mesh grille on our review model was black, but if you prefer a splash of colour you can buy a green, yellow or red grille. These colours match the rest of the Jongo range, so you can avoid colour clashes if you want multiple speakers in the same room.

The Pure logo in the centre of the speaker can be rotated, and the T2 can sit either vertically or horizontally. You can wall-mount the Jongo T2 as well, if you wish, which is refreshingly flexible compared to other multi-room speakers we’ve reviewed.

The power, volume and mute buttons are on the side, but you won’t need them to turn the speaker on, or start streaming from a smartphone once you install the Pure Connect app. It can wake any connected Jongo speaker from Standby mode, turning the glowing power LED from orange to green without having to reach over and press it manually.

Connecting the T2 to your router is as simple as holding down the power button, joining its temporary wireless network and then configuring it to connect to your own network. Unlike Sonos, which uses its own proprietary mesh wireless system, you’re limited to the areas of your house with wireless coverage. Once synchronised, you must open Pure Connect on an Android or iOS device to stream music. You can add extra Jongo units with a tap of the Wi-Fi button – it will recognise your initial unit and set itself up accordingly.

Pure has continued to tweak the Connect service as well as the apps, improving performance as well as the design. You still have access to thousands of internet radio stations, on-demand programmes and ambient sounds. You can also enjoy unlimited streaming if you subscribe to Pure Music for £5 per month, or £10 if you also want to enjoy offline playlists.The service now has over 15 million tracks, which is roughly three quarters that of rival service Spotify. All the random track suggestions we tried, across a range of genres, appeared when we searched for them, so there should be something here for everyone.

The app is much more stable on Android now than when we tested the Jongo S3, with none of the crashes or freezes we experienced previously. However, there’s still no way to access files stored on your local network or NAS device. Annoyingly, you can’t add your own music to a playlist through the app, but it does detect playlists created with other installed media players.

It still took several seconds to hear music after we’d pressed the play button, whether we streamed music from Pure Connect or the on-device libraries of our iPad Mini and Android smartphone. Once a track starts, synchronisation between rooms is superb, with no audible time delay when walking around the house. Plus, if you have multiple T2s in the same room, you can set them up as a stereo pair for better sound separation.

When it comes to sound quality, the Jongo T2 doesn’t disappoint. It’s able to fill a medium-sized room with sound and produces a surprising amount of bass for such a compact unit. The top end sounded a little bright, but the mid-range was punchy and detailed.

Beyond multi-room streaming, the T2 also has a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting wired devices, along with A2DP Bluetooth support. Unfortunately you won’t be able to stream to multiple Jongo speakers through these inputs; you must use the Pure Connect app.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive entry to multi-room streaming, the Jongo T2 is well worth your consideration. Even with its quirks, Pure’s Jongo range should be the multi-room system of choice for anyone looking for the best value.