Saregama Carvaan Musicbar review: Basic soundbar with karaoke for novelty

Saregama has an interesting portfolio of audio products, which come loaded with the timeless collection of songs. Expanding the portfolio, India's oldest music label recently launched a soundbar called Saregama Carvaan Karaoke Musicbar. It is the company’s second product with karaoke music tracks built-in and two wireless microphones for sing-along utility. The karaoke feature gives the soundbar an edge over others, but is it better? Let’s find out:

Design

The Saregama Carvaan Karaoke Musicbar does not score well in terms of design. It has a wooden finish, which looks archaic and does not elevate the room interiors. The sounder comes with a subwoofer, which is big and heavy, and requires a dedicated place somewhere near the soundbar because of wired connectivity. The soundbar supports table-top and wall mount installations, but it is better to place it on top of the table because its ports are all on the rear side.

Connectivity

The soundbar connects to the subwoofer with a wire, but it has Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless connectivity with supported devices such as televisions, laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. Besides, it has AUX, USB 3.0, and HDMI for input. The soundbar has built-in FM, which uses a built-in wired antenna to receive signals. The antenna wire is available on the rear side, next to the ports dugout area. It has its own cavity where you can keep it hidden if you do not use FM radio.

Performance

Saregama calls it a musicbar, and not a soundbar, for a reason. The Saregama Carvaan Karaoke Musicbar has 1000 tracks pre-loaded, which you can access through the supplied remote control or smartphone app. The built-in audio tracks give it a standalone utility. For karaoke, two wireless microphones come with the unit. Good thing about the Saregama Carvaan Karaoke Musicbar is it lets you sing-along your favourite song by using karaoke tracks from any supported source. YouTube, for instance, has many karaoke tracks with lyrics available. You can play the karaoke track on YouTube on television and sing-along reading the lyrics on the screen.

The standalone utility and karaoke function give the Saregama Carvaan Karaoke Musicbar an edge over others. However, as a soundbar there is not much to like about it. The Saregama Carvaan Karaoke Musicbar delivers satisfactory audio with enhanced bass effects, thanks to a dedicated subwoofer. The audio output can be customised using pre-set graphic equalisers. Sci-fi movie lovers will appreciate the 3D stereo surround sound mode that widens the stereo effect. Even though the output is decent, the lack of support for Dolby Atmos and DTS content limits the use of the soundbar to daily in-home entertainment.

Verdict

Priced at Rs 10,990, the Saregama Carvaan Karaoke Musicbar is strictly for karaoke enthusiasts. It is a basic soundbar with a subwoofer good for casual everyday use. If you are an audiophile, however, the soundbar’s underwhelming audio signature might not impress. That said, the dual purpose of a musicbar and a Bluetooth soundbar is a novelty the Saregama Carvaan Karaoke Musicbar plays on.