Malhar has a deep cultural significance in India. In classical music, it is a raga that is linked to rain and thunder.

Legend has it that when Malhar is performed, clouds bestow rain and cool the Earth. Rain rejuvenates life.

And this sort of intensity is what homegrown audio maker Sonodyne wants to bring in audio with the Malhar G2 speaker.The Malhar G2 is a high-fidelity, or hi-fi speaker designed to appeal to purists. There are no smart features here, no AI chatbot, no app, nothing that may distract you.

The focus is clear, to make you experience music as intended right in your living room. Mind you, Sonodyne has apparently been a favourite among many Indian musicians for decades, so it is safe to assume these folks know what they are doing.

Everything about the Malhar G2 screams premium quality something which is also – for obvious reasons – reflects in the pricing, which is set at Rs 55,000 for a single speaker.India Today Tech spent some time with the Sonodyne Malhar G2 and here is what we think of it.Design and setupIf you have to imagine a home speaker, you may think of some minimalist rectangular unit, likely in a dull grey or black finish. Sonodyne, however, is doing something different.

The Malhar G2 has a design that almost speaks to you. The frame is curved, what the company calls a proprietary curved design.

The top and bottom of the Malhar gently curve, giving you a unique look that may remind some of old radio boxes – if you remember those! The Malhar has a retro look that will appeal to the purist inside you.

This outer body comes in a natural wood finish which feels premium. You get a fabric cover on the front of the speaker, which you can remove to put the drivers on display.

The aesthetics here are quite old school and retro, something that is not very common these days. Of course, this may not be to everyone’s liking but it will cater to purists looking for old-school charm.For someone in their early 20s like me, such a design is rare.

It reminds me of audio equipment kept in my school’s sitar room, which brings a different sort of nostalgia. More on this sitar connection later.

Despite this old school charm, the Malhar looks elegant, and it would feel right at home in a Lutyens living room. And the living room is where it will likely stay.

The Sonodyne Malhar G2 is not a small speaker. It has a height of 250mm, combined with a width of 440mm, and a depth of 220mm.

It weighs about 7.5kg. The speaker is designed to be placed at one place.

To use the Malhar, you will need to connect it to a power source as it does not come with a battery pack.Once you have it turned on, you can use the controls placed at the top or use the remote that the speaker comes with. Connectivity options include HDMI ARC support for TVs along with optical, USB, and AUX.

But for the sake of convenience, there is also Bluetooth 5.4. It all works seamlessly.

The ports are placed on the back of the speaker with prominent Made in India branding.Connecting the Sonodyne Malhar G2 is an easy process. The brief sitar startup montage played by renowned Indian musician Niladri Kumar adds a nice touch.

For me, once again, this brings back memories of my school music room.A premium no-nonsense experienceThe Sonodyne Malhar G2 is a hi-fi speaker. In simple terms, it is designed to deliver you the exact audio experience as intended by the artist with little distortion.

The moment I got the Malhar connected to my TV, I instantly went through my playlist to listen to my favourite songs. There is decent separation between instruments and vocals.

Songs such as Ariana Grande’s Petal have a good mix of mids and high notes, with substantive bass. While Miley Cyrus’ Bass Persuades sounds like chef’s kiss with balanced bass and vocals.

The remote and controls panel of the Malhar. When I made some of my friends listen to music on the Malhar, they were impressed.

The speaker is rated for 101db maximum SPL at one metre, with peaks of 107dB. Pair this with a power output of up to 200W, and the Malhar is able to deliver a good experience even in larger living rooms.In a decently sized room, the speaker received praise as we pulled off an all-nighter on music.

Here, Sonodyne’s three-way audio system comes into play. The Malhar gets two high frequency 1-inch silk-dome tweeters, 2 mid frequency 3-inch’ glass-fibre cone woofers and one low frequency 6.5-inch glass-fibre cone woofer.This setup allows every driver to work on the frequencies they are tasked with.

The highs with the high, and the low with the low. And this makes all the difference.

The Malhar accurately balances sound on default settings with clear vocals, mids, and bass. And in case you do want to fiddle around with the speaker’s audio, you can manually adjust the bass or treble.

At Max bass settings, you feel the strong vibrations from the 6.5-inch woofer. If you are watching a scene where there is thunder and rain, the Malhar may make you feel like it is indeed living up to its name.But changing the settings can get a bit cumbersome.

The control unit is placed on top of the speaker. When you make any changes via the remote, you see a red light from under the fabric cover and that’s about it.

You would need to walk to the speaker and use the controls if you want to actually know what changes you have made.Apart from music, there are movies too that you would probably like to play on a big speaker like Malhar. There is a dedicated movie mode that is supposed to make dialogues clearer.

But I found that sometimes the dialogues came out a bit muffled and you may have to increase the volume to hear clearly. Though sound effects like the bang of a gunshot or the cracking of glass feel almost surreal for a speaker of this size.There is a caveat though.

The Malhar G2 comes as a single unit. If you want the complete hi-fi stereo experience, you would need to buy two units to work on Duet Mode, which does become a bit pricey.Should you buy Sonodyne Malhar G2?The Sonodyne Malhar G2 comes with a promise – to deliver hi-fi audio in what appears to be one of the most elegant designs that we have seen lately.

And the speaker lives up to its promise. The sound is good, there is clarity between frequencies, and you have plenty to play around with.

Sonodyne’s team, which does the research and development completely in-house inside its New Alipore facility in Kolkata, has managed to compress the professional experience into the speaker.Yes, the controls could’ve been more intuitive to use, and the Malhar does cost a premium. But as it stands, the Sonodyne Malhar G2 justifies that premium price tag.

Like the name suggests, Malhar evokes a sense of liveliness that comes when the first drops of rain fall on the Earth’s surface in monsoon. Its old school charm makes you notice the way most smart speakers can only dream of.- Ends