With an unprecedented surge in popularity of online music streaming apps, such as Spotify, YouTube Music and Apple Music, the idea of an old-school music player seems to have become somewhat obsolete. But, as they say, what seems is not what is. In other words, people still buy these players, for had that not been the case, we wouldn’t have something like Saragama’s Carvaan Go – a digital audio player that offers you the nostalgic pleasure of listening to those age-old classic Hindi songs by legends like Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar.
Design
The Carvaan Go is a decent-looking digital audio player, but it lacks the charm and appeal of players like the iPod. However, it’s well-built and designed to last longer. With curved edges and a weight of only 88 grams, the Carvaan Go is easy to hold in hand and can comfortably sit in your pocket. A setup at the top-right corner allows you to hang attach it to a bag with a small strap.
An LCD at the front displays the track or radio station that’s playing. The player has FM/AM option, a 3.5mm jack, Bluetooth and a micro-SD card slot, which can support to 32GB – this allows you to store new songs of your liking.
Features and performance
The Carvaan Go comes preloaded with 3,000 retro Hindi songs, which are categorised by artistes (28 stations dedicated to different artistes), specials (nine stations for themes like romance and dance hits), and playlists (50 specially designed playlists like Helen the dancing diva and Musical 50’s).
You can use earphones, an aux-out cable or Bluetooth to listen to the songs. Using an aux-out cable, you can transform the Carvaan Go into your in-car music companion to listen to your favourite retro songs without ad breaks. There is also a favourites button that you can use to like a song. You also have buttons for volume, Bluetooth, and FM/AM radio on the sides of the device.
The digital audio player also comes with the Carvaan App, which allows you to simply select the songs or playlists on your phone and play it on Carvaan Go.
It also comes with a small in-built speaker for your night-time bed-side listening. Its rechargeable battery can offer up to seven hours of non-stop music. Once discharged, the battery takes about approximately 2 hours to charge. The audio quality of the 1W speaker is decent enough.
Conclusion
At Rs 3,990, the Carvaan Go is great for those have a predilection for old songs and like to revel in the pleasures of good old radio days. And the fact that you can listen to the 3,000 preloaded songs without the Internet or interruptions from ads certainly adds to its appeal.
Pros
Compact, well-built
Cons
Audio is not loud enough
