Saregama Carvaan takes the Wi-Fi route to keep churning out vintage stuff

The Saregama Carvaan is an established entity for music-loving old-timers and their progeny alike. And the 2.0 with Wi-Fi is a major update. It makes sure that the jukebox never runs out of things to listen to, which means more songs, playlists and podcasts that keep getting updated. Here’s how the experience goes.

Design (5/5)

The design was never in need of an update. The only enhancement that could arguably have been offered was to bring new variations to its delightful colour gamut. And Saregama has done exactly that. I welcomed the emerald green into my house with open arms and gave it the spot that the last rose gold review unit had occupied. It instantly adds a retro vibe to modern interiors that it is delightful even as a showpiece. And I am happy to be able to declare that it does much more.

Performance (4/5)

At its core, the Carvaan is the same old singing machine. It comes with 5,000 pre-loaded songs that cover the golden era of Hindi film music, starting from the 1950s and stretching up to the early 2000s. The voice of Ameen Sayani lives on through the 50 years of Geetmala that comes pre-loaded. My mother tends to transform into a jumpy teenager when his radio shows are on. Her second favourite past-time is to jump from one artiste to the next and one decade to another and listen to entire playlists. Some things just never age.

The addition of Wi-Fi brings in more playlists from all tunes of old Bollywood and stuff like kids, devotional and even literature and word play podcasts. The company says that the number of audio shows will soon touch 100. You can access all this extra material on the app, which also acts as the remote control, while the machine also comes with a nice, sleek remote, just in case you want to dump your phone and go fully old school.

Verdict (4.5/5)

I haven’t wavered from my earlier opinion that the pricier rose gold version of Carvaan (Rs 12,990 for the 2.0 version), which comes with Harman Kardon speakers, is a near-perfect Bluetooth speaker to carry the old gems within it. But the classic black and emerald green Carvaan 2.0 with a speaker loud enough for a small room, a battery life of up to four hours and connectivity to Bluetooth, USB, AUX and now Wi-Fi for Rs 7,900, is a must-buy jukebox-radio for music lovers who love Bollywood for its best.