Saregama Carvaan Premium Portable Digital Music Player (Royal Blue)

Product Information

That said, sound quality with newer music, the online content, and anything played over Bluetooth is acceptable for casual listening at home. The Carvaan 2.0 didn't sound as good to us as the typical Bluetooth speaker in this price range, but it's important to remember that this isn't an ordinary wireless speaker, and the appeal is in the content being offered. On the whole, the Saregama Carvaan 2.0 offers the same sound experience as its predecessor. Now, the Musicbar Karaoke is aimed at mass-market users, so it has a largely bass-heavy sound profile that’s suited to appeal a larger audience. The subwoofer puts out loud, booming bass that dominates the sound signature, but you do have controls on the remote to tune the bass and treble to your liking. When asked if Saregama was working on a hardware product for younger audiences, Vikram Mehra - Managing Director of Saregama India - stated that it wasn't something it was working on, and that the company's focus was on providing a product for its older audiences. There is no AUX in port, so only way to connect your mobile to this is Bluetooth. We know Bluetooth takes more battery. So, AUX in would have increased battery life a lot. While the core functionality that we loved hasn't gone away, the company has made the Carvaan 2.0 a little more high-tech. The Saregama Carvaan 2.0 is priced at Rs. 7,990, and works just the same as the original Carvaan speaker, along with a big new addition — Internet connectivity. This new model can use Wi-Fi to access over 150 Internet radio stations and podcasts. Does this overly complicate a product that's known for its simplicity? We've had a chance to use the Saregama Carvaan 2.0for a whileand here's our review.

Muisc players are a must in every household if there resides a music fanatic in the family. As much as the home theatres give you impeccable sound quality, you cannot simply carry them elsewhere to give you company. For example, you want to hang out with your friends at your college terrace or when you are on a trip, you need access to some evergreen music that is portable and mobile. That’s where Saregama Carvaan Bluetooth MP3 Player steps in. It is equipped to provide you with flawless music. It comes in a perfect portable design. Easy to take with you wherever you go. Comes with remote. And on top of everything else, this is perfect gift for parents and friends. I have been struggling to give similar experience to my mother since long. I took pain to collect 1450 songs and created various folders categorizing them into whatever category I can think of. I bought five different Bluetooth speakers to finally got one which can allow you to change folders. But that is very basic, and still complicated to use. Now, with this, it will be much easier and simpler to listen to these songs. In terms of design, the Musicbar Karaoke is a bit of an upgrade from the previous Saregama Carvaan Musicbar, because it gets these rose-gold accents on the button area, and this fake-wood trim at the ends. The subwoofer is very simply designed, with no buttons at all, but the Carvaan logo is finished in Rose Gold to match the soundbar. The design and feel of the Carvaan 2.0 remains largely the same as its predecessor, with a fourth function button added to give users access to Internet-based content. Additionally, Saregama has also launched the Rs. 15,990 Carvaan 2.0 Gold, which like its predecessor, comes with Harman Kardon-certified speakers, and similar Wi-Fi connectivity for access to online content. Connecting to the Internet has also been simplified, and is done through the Saregama app - available for iOS and Android. Once connected, the Carvaan receives the Wi-Fi credentials through the smartphone, and automatically connects and functions when the Wi-Fi mode is activated. Of course, users can continue to access the preloaded content as well. The app is necessary to set up Wi-Fi connectivity for the Saregama Carvaan 2.0. The process to do so was a bit complicated and quite buggy; it took us a few attempts to finally get the speaker connected to a Wi-Fi network, with plenty of unexplained errors popping up along the way. However, we finally did get the speaker connected, after which it was able to stream without trouble. Once configured, the speaker automatically connects to your Wi-Fi network, and it worked perfectly for us. Users not comfortable with tech may have trouble with the initial setup process and may need help from someone more tech-savvy.

Saregama India Dividends

For now, most of the stations centre around devotional content, as well as genre and mood-based playlists. There are also some talk shows and conversational programmes, covering topics such as cooking, finance, and health. Saregama refers to these shows as ‘podcasts', which we'd say is a fairly accurate description of what you can expect. However, a big addition to the new product is Wi-Fi connectivity, which allows users to access over 150 audio stations, being pushed as podcasts and curated by Saregama itself. The content on these stations includes music, talk shows, devotional content, children's content, and more. The stations are regularly updated, with Saregama claiming that between 6-60 minutes of new content is added to each station every day. Saregama has plans to increase the number of stations to 1,000 in the coming months. Saregama India Ltd., incorporated in the year 1946, is a Small Cap company (having a market cap of Rs 7,217.82 Crore) operating in Media & Entertainment sector. Saregama India Ltd. key Products/Revenue Segments include Licence Fees, Media Products, Films/TV Serials and Other Operating Revenue for the year ending 31-Mar-2023. For the quarter ended 30-09-2023, the company has reported a Consolidated Total Income of Rs 185.55 Crore, up 2.59 % from last quarter Total Income of Rs 180.86 Crore and down 7.47 % from last year same quarter Total Income of Rs 200.54 Crore. Company has reported net profit after tax of Rs 47.99 Crore in latest quarter. The company’s top management includes Dr.Sanjiv Goenka, Mrs.Avarna Jain, Mr.Vikram Mehra, Mrs.Preeti Goenka, Mr.Arindam Sarkar, Mr.Noshir Naval Framjee, Mr.Santanu Bhattacharya, Ms.Suhana Murshed, Mr.Umang Kanoria, Mr.Pankaj Mahesh Chaturvedi. Company has BSR & Co. LLP as its auditors. As on 30-09-2023, the company has a total of 19.28 Crore shares outstanding. Bluetooth mode is very basic. It does not have microphone, so you can’t use it to take a call. Also, none of the button works in Bluetooth mode. So you can only operate it from your mobile. At least the next / previous button should have worked in Bluetooth mode.

Specification-wise, there’s four 2.5-inch speakers in the Musicbar, and one 6.5-inch driver in the subwoofer, for a total 120W of power output. So, overall its very good unit, but I also have some points I would like to mention before giving my final verdict. These are not the Cons as I loved this unit, but nothing is perfect, so here are the items I wish they had given in this unit. Online content for the Saregama Carvaan 2.0 comes in the form of audio stations that work exactly the same as the preloaded artiste and genre-based playlists, except that music is streamed from the Internet. The available audio stations currently number in excess of 150, and Saregama says that more stations are being added regularly. While the build quality is excellent, I had to return the product for several reasons. Returning this was a hard decision, because the thing *looks* very cool. The Carvaan range of speakers includes the Saregama Carvaan and Carvaan Gold, which offer a variety of content and connectivity options.

Over 5,000 tracks to listen to, 1,000 tracks to sing along to on the Saregama Carvaan Karaoke

Think of this, all such playlist based on same 5000 songs, and the device can be more, much more unique in its own way. And I know for a fact that with various mp3 tags, it’s very easy to do so. The Saregama Carvaan 2.0 comes with a rechargeable battery that promises 5-6 hours of use on a single charge, along with external connectivity through Bluetooth, USB, Aux In, and FM/AM radio. The Wi-Fi audio stations are maintained by Saregama itself, and are currently free to access with the speaker. A remote would have added more ease to the unit. I know it is not included to give it a retro look, but think about it. This unit is trying to cater for both older as well as new generation. The older generation wants a radio like feel, and songs from their era. The newer generation wants to play their own songs with more control using bluetooth and pen drive. Now, you have these options, but newer generation also don’t want to walk to the unit to skip the current song. So, while people will love it for retro radio effect but find it little difficult for playing songs on pen drive and always has to walk to the unit for skipping a song. This is not an issue while playing via Bluetooth, as full control is in mobile. The Musicbar Karaoke has a very sharply V-shaped sound signature with recessed modes, but sounds really fun for any kind of music that thrives on bass. Clarity does suffer as you turn the volume higher, but even at around 50% volume, the soundbar should easily full most reasonably-sized rooms.