Sonodyne Malhar review: An Indian masterpiece that serves pure sound for the purists

The Malhar stands out the moment you pull it out of the box. (Image: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

The cabinet has an array of buttons on top that lets you switch input modes as well as songs and adjust volume. By design the Malhar does not want users to bother about adjusting bass or treble and even the remote does not let you fiddle with these. You can connect multiple sources — USB, Auxiliary and Optical — depending on what you have and easily switch between them.

Some audio devices give vibes that make one want to listen to certain types of music on it. The Malhar clearly gave me Carnatic, Hindustani, Leonard Cohen vibes, not just because of its name. And I was not wrong. The first playlist I went to was a Spotify Hindustani Classical playlist with many renditions in Ragas I had not even heard of… clearly a good sign for music discovery. Not one to be intimidated, I settled for Nirali Kartik’s familiar voice and a less familiar Gurjari Todi. Soon her voice was filling the living room and overpowering this year’s subdued December chill. But on the Malhar her voice, the Tanpura in the backdrop gets centre stage so that get into a meditative state with the Todi, just as intended. The audio profile also has a warmth radiating from it, almost mellow… perfect for this time of the year.

The Malhar clearly gave me Carnatic, Hindustani, Leonard Cohen vibes. (Image: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

With a richer composition like Manasa Sancharare by Bombay Jayashree, the mrudangam comes into the mix activating the radiators and telling us the speaker can handle deep lows really well too. But I could not help but feel I was enjoying her silken voice at some Margazhi Sabha in Chennai. That is how the Soundstage of the Malhar stands out.

And it is not just Classical that the Malhar revels at. You feel Malhar’s rich sound profile while listening to something like the HiFi version of Besame Mucho by Chantal Chamberlain or a live version of Fever. What this speaker does so well is to separate the vocals from everything else. It is almost a three-dimensional projection of the music with the vocals a bit ahead of the instruments.

And interestingly all this was happening via Bluetooth streaming from Apple Music and Spotify. I wanted to push the envelope a bit and switched to Apple’s Classical Music app and searched for the London Philharmonic which has been nominated again for Orchestra of the year. The Bach’s Concerto for Oboe, Strings & Continuo took a few seconds to load, but clearly packed a punch, filling the room even though the volume was not at full. Mozart’s overture by Vienna Philharmonic too had the same effect with a stereo effect that very few one-piece speakers can produce with such impact. Suddenly my home had a Christmassy feel about it. I moved on not to make the neighbours wonder why there are reindeers outside my fifth-floor window.

My only complaint is that power lights are on top and often you can’t make out whether the speaker is on. (Image: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)

I loved the Malhar for its ability to stay true with renditions that switch from highs to lows like with most of the Orchestra compositions. And even at high volumes, the speaker does not struggle. There is a fullness to whatever the Malhar does so you will not be disappointed.

My only complaint is that power lights are on top and often you can’t make out whether the speaker is on. And this means it stays connected to the phone without you realising it. The LEDs would be more useful on the front. Also, I would like to see a Wi-Fi version of this so that I can start streaming to the Malhar without the irritations of a hyperactive smartphone like mine.

At Rs 37,500, the Malhar is the kind of speaker that appeals to those who love their music to be pure and also have a taste in pure music. This is the kind of speaker I would invest in for my weekend morning sessions finding new artists and reliving my favourite numbers. The Malhar is the kind of speaker which would pass off as an audio masterpiece that’s come out of Europe. And it makes me proud that this has come from an Indian company that is standing up and telling the world it is time we are heard.