Saregama Carvaan Portable Digital Music Player (Oak Wood Brown)

SAREGAMA CARVAAN is a unique product for music lovers. This is your personal radio with 80 different stations tailor-made for only you. This has a digital music player where you can play your music from pen drive, or a memory card using card reader. This is a Bluetooth speaker where you can connect your devices like phone, laptop etc. and play your music via Bluetooth. This is your FM radio as well. And as cherry on top, it has 50 years of Geetmala top songs with Ameen Sayani’s famous voiceover!!! Let’s review this in detail.First thing first, let’s talk about technical details of this device. It looks like a transistor radio or portable radio if you don’t know transistor radio. It has a digital LCD always on backlit display, which shows the album and song name along with battery status. It has 2 speakers of 3 watt each, and sound is pretty good to fill the room. There are 4 buttons on left side, to choose between Bluetooth mode, FM mode, USB mode (for Pen drive or card reader) and Saregama (in-built radio stations with 5000 locally stored songs). There are three large round buttons on front, to choose between Artists, Moods and Geetmala. A big dial on front helps change the channels in Saregama mode, switch folders in USB mode and fine tune FM stations. Two small buttons for next/previous songs in Saregama/USB mode and stations in FM mode. On right side, you have volume dial and headphone slot. Back panel has USB slot for pen drive and micro USB for charging.List of items I like in this unit.• In-built 5000 best songs spread across 80 selection choices. You just power on the device, and start playing your very own personal radio. Each of these 80 stations are nothing but 80 different playlist, set to play songs on random mode. So you just roll the dial, switch to Kishore Kumar, and you enjoy few songs before you move to Rafi, and then when you come back to Kishore, unlike other music players, it will not start the same songs all over again, but start playing some new song. So, you don’t know what next song going to be, and that’s the feeling of good old radio.• Some of the finest songs selected for this unit, and a fine collection of playlist or station created for easy selection.• Geetmala is another treat for old timers, who remember the first ever weekly countdown show of India. You get all 50 year worth of annual show of this!!• FM work just fine, there is no antenna, but it catch most of the station without any issue and the sound is clear.• Bluetooth also works as normal Bluetooth speaker. Easy to connect and play your mobile collection.• USB implementation is very good. If the songs are spread under various folders, you can easily skip through folders using big dial. But songs on USB are played sequentially.• It has a headphone slot which can be used to connect external speakers or headphones.• Speaker quality is very good and loud. It fills the room even at mid-range.• Battery lasted for more than 6-7 hours while playing built-in songs. It was still showing around 20-25% battery, but we decided to charge. So, battery life is great on built-in songs. I did not try Bluetooth all the way, but playing for more than an hour on Bluetooth, I didn’t see much of battery loss. So, my vote is that it has good battery. I wish they had given the specs about battery capacity in mAh.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.• It has 5000 songs, but there is no way you can select any of it. You can only listen to these songs in random order. It is designed this way to give you radio like experience, and to make it less technical to play songs. But I wish they had some other way to choose and play, if we want to.• 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.• 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.• Position of USB is in back, but it put the unit at risk. If this topple to the back, USB port can get damaged due to impact on Pen Drive. Ideally, it should have been at the right side of unit. If the unit is placed on a flat surface like table, there is no risk at all. But if you are putting it on bed or sofa, the uneven surface makes it risky for the USB port. Please note that it is only risky when you have a pen drive plugged in, and unit it placed on an uneven surface.• They should have given few channels for decades like 50s, 60s 70s etc. I know it has full Geetmala, and you can select it year by year. But there is a difference between a radio show with announcer and just back to back songs from that decade!! It does have 80 channels, and covers most of the singers, musicians, lyricists plus various modes like romance, sad etc. But with so many songs, you can do many more. I wish they had given a way to create my own playlist, or some way to upload new playlists onto the unit. If you open up the way to create playlist for users, and ask them to upload on their website, you end up having so many more combinations with the same set of songs. For example, few of the playlists I can think of right away are:o Rain songso Road trip songso Kishore/Lata Duets or similar combinationso Eyes /ornaments related songso Holi songso Deewali songso Eid songs and songs for similar other festivalsThink 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.• I wish they had given a random button for USB songs as well. The whole idea of playing songs in random order is to listen to different combinations every time. When I put my pen drive on any other player, I start with same songs, and in same order every time. Some player has random option, some has folder option. Now a days, with pen drive holding 1000s of songs, I think random is one of the main feature people will like while playing pen drive.• 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.Someone has already written this in another review, and I will also add to it. If they create an app, which can connect to this unit using Bluetooth, and control the music, they can do a lot more. Think about it, the base unit will serve to the retro liking customers, and app will serve to the new generation of music lovers. They can create their own playlist, upload it to the unit, use it for Karaoke on the instrumental section, or buy new songs directly within the app and gets uploaded to the unit. This can be another source of selling their songs.So, here is my verdict about the device. It is a perfect family music system for today’s day. I know people have moved on to their individual mobiles and headphones for playing music now a days. But that is the gap it is ready to fill. You have a Bluetooth speaker, which can be connected easily by any mobile phone in your family. They can customise their own playlist on their mobile, and play it for the entire family. A birthday or similar occasion in family, and it is fun to do as well.Now, it has 80 channels which comes handy for any music lover. You can have a gathering of friends, and you can turn on a little background music of your choice, without even worrying about songs selection or playing order. You can turn Bhakti songs early in the morning, Romantic songs in evening, Ghazals in the night, without even worrying about creating a playlist or sourcing songs etc.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.For the music lovers, this has great collection of songs, and on top of that, it allows you to play FM and your own songs from USB or Bluetooth. That makes it a near perfect music system. So, according to me, this is one of must buy for any music lover, or families looking for a music system.The price is little high, as we have much better brands selling their Bluetooth speakers at much lower rate. But the songs collection you get makes it worth the price. I am going to get few more units for gifting as well, and hope they come up with version 2 of this unit soon, with more features as per my wish list.

The package got delivered today. It took two days to reach. Thanks amazon for timely delivery of the package, on Sunday , when it can be explored maximum.Packaging- five stars as usual. Amazon packaging is probably one of the best in India.Built - wooden texture almost simulates wood. The weight of the device and handling is almost that of golden era radio device. The handle is sturdy and buttons are well built. There is a feel that buttons would last long. Volume button is beautifully designed in retro style and works with charm. Display is dull but can be read from 6 ft distance. There is adequate information provided by the display about the song being played. Front buttons give adequate flexibility in choosing artist, mood and geetmala. Side buttons also help for one touch function. Speaker grill is well hidden by front panel. Dial which works as selector is sturdy and good quality which should last long.Audio quality - if you expect audio quality like today's modem Bluetooth speakers like JBL or Bose, this product is not for you. The sound is typical of golden era tape recorder or good quality radio. It gives you clear mid tones. Bass and treble has been suppressed so as to give priority to vocals which is indeed a good adjustment for enjoying old songs which were based mostly on vocals and not like today's song which have music as priority. The sound quality is good for old songs. Newer hip hops won't sound well on speakers. Loudness is good and you can fill a room with small gatherings of up to 40-50 people. In short , 5 stars for golden era sound.Portability - it's portable enough to accompany you anywhere. But it's not small to be hidden. Lightweight to carry. Ergonomics of handling are good.Connectivity - instantly connects to Bluetooth and sound streams well. Quality of sound is good with good midtones giving more weightage to vocals. But you would definitely like the vintage feel to the sound. USB connects fast and one can change folders on USB device using Selector dial. Fm connects the channel instantly.Battery life- I will post details as I continue to use it. I am charging it for the first time. It is yet to charge fully. But one can listen to the device inspire of completely drained battery, only by connecting the power charger. There is no need to wait till battery charges completely.Problems so far. - FM channels are not working, neither it's tuned when device is charging. The moment I take out charging cable, fm works with charm.External Antenna would have been a good addition for better fm quality. There is some crackling noise due to reception problem.Charging time is long. In today's era of fast charging technology, charging this device over 6 hours is something like a setback from technology. SaReGaMa team needs to work on it.Even if you are 1% admirer of music, then this is a device for you. One can buy it without second thought and I bet there won't be any regret.Thanks.

Writing this review after almost 4 months. So I bought 2 devices in a gap of 2 months. The first one as without remote and another one with a remote. The first one started creating problems after a month or so. Songs would not load, or would take more than a minute to load in Saregama mode. Thought this is normal, however the one with remote had no such problem. Songs would load immediately or in negligible time. Called customer care got an appointment for a technician, the technician visited as per planned timelines. So good so far, however it turned out that this was not a hardware problem. So the technician could not help. The customer care contacted me from Mumbai and requested me to send back the faulty piece (reverse logistics was arranged by Saregama). Once the piece reached Mumbai, a new piece was immediately sent to me. So far so good, the new piece is working fine.So in short,1. Happy with customer service.2. Happy with the product (non defective one). It's an awesome gift for parents.3. The new replaced piece is with remote (did not pay any extra price). Which is working fine after a week of usage.4. Interaction with customer service was without any pain, it's just that it took a bit of time for them to arrange for reverse pickup. ( Btw they also asked me to send a video of the product showing the problem I was facing, I complied)5. Will recommend buying, note that customer service might not be good in small cities as their network might not be active yet ( had to bring the piece back from my home town as service center's were not available there).