
Bose founder, Amar Bose, has died at 83 - jefftchan
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/obit-amar-bose-0712.html
======
Anechoic
It's not well known, but Dr. Bose had a stroke a few years ago. I was an
officer of a local Acoustical Society of America chapter in Boston. Dr. Bose
had been awarded a plaque at the national ASA conference in the summer of
2011, but he wasn't well enough to travel to accept the reward, so we
volunteered to host a reception in Cambridge to give him the award and
recognize other prominent acousticians. At that point, none of us knew what
had happened to prevent him from traveling (I figured he was just really
busy), but we were informed shortly before the reception.

When he arrived he was clearly still recovering (he had difficult walking and
needed time to collect his thoughts before speaking), but he was still able to
make a barn-burner of an acceptance speech. Afterwords, he took the time to
speak to anyone who wanted to talk to him, including me.

I know audiophiles and enthusiasts have a low opinion of Bose products and
their litigation strategies (some of which I share), but I had Dr. Bose as a
professor in college and he was a fantastic instructor (even without the free
ice cream during tests!). Students would often challenge him based on
audiophile beliefs, and he would always use sound engineering arguments to
refute them. And he was the only MIT prof I have saw who regularly ate meals
at the Lobdell Food Court.

RIP Dr. Bose.

camera-phone picture of James Barger, Dr. Bose, Christopher Jaffe and Eric
Unger at the aforementioned reception:
[http://twitpic.com/d2amd3](http://twitpic.com/d2amd3)

edit: bose.com has a memorial up:
[http://www.bose.com/remember/index.html](http://www.bose.com/remember/index.html)

~~~
jpdoctor
Well put. One addendum:

> _but I had Dr. Bose as a professor in college and he was a fantastic
> instructor_

Most folks knew him from the audio course. Less known was how long his history
of teaching, eg his network theory book in the late sixties. That book was how
I learned some of the more exotic transformations. (Most folks know parallel
and series. It turns out that there are things like pi-delta/wye-delta and
friends.)

RIP.

~~~
_pmf_
Do you have any links to lecture notes or the like?

~~~
jpdoctor
It's funny, back in those days the equivalent archive of such things were that
people would write a book for use in the class.

[http://www.amazon.com/Introductory-Network-Theory-Amar-
Bose/...](http://www.amazon.com/Introductory-Network-Theory-Amar-
Bose/dp/B0000CMXS1/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373729021&sr=1-1&keywords=amar+bose+network+theory)

------
curiousDog
"In 2011, to fulfill his lifelong dream to support MIT education, Dr. Bose
gave to MIT the majority of the stock of Bose Corporation in the form of
nonvoting shares. Under the terms of the gift, dividends from those shares
will be used by MIT to sustain and advance MIT’s education and research
mission. MIT cannot sell its Bose shares, and does not participate in the
management or governance of the company."

Wow. Respect.

------
savrajsingh
Sorry to hear. One of Bose's greatest contributions may be the Bose
Suspension, which (to my knowledge) hasn't been put into production yet:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSi6J-QK1lw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSi6J-QK1lw)

~~~
OGC
It has been put into production:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=940wGYCeQ68](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=940wGYCeQ68)

~~~
savrajsingh
I hadn't seen that, very cool. Though I'm not sure this is a licensed version
of the Bose system or an all-new system. It looks like the Mercedes system
uses computer vision -- no mention of cameras or CV on the Bose website.

~~~
rgbrenner
right.. notice the video says "active" (not "bose active suspension")..

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_suspension](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_suspension)

And in this article, Bose says they won't license the tech:

 _Bose is seeking a partner to help in these areas and take the product to
market, but the company doesn 't want to just license its technology to a
suspension supplier or car company. Bose wants to stay in this business for
the long term as the supplier of its system._

[http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/a-surprising-new-
active-...](http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/a-surprising-new-active-
suspension)

~~~
savrajsingh
Cool -- nice find with that article. Tesla / Elon, are you reading this? ;)

------
pud
Bose got a bad rap.

In the 80's, everyone agreed Bose products were pretty but overpriced.
Unfortunately that reputation stuck.

These days, we all gladly pay extra for good aesthetic design (see: Apple, and
almost every electronic gizmo on Kickstarter).

Bose was ahead of their time.

~~~
beloch
Nothing epitomizes Bose so well as their minicube home-theater-in-a-box
systems.

Somewhat expensive. Tiny and easy to live with (I believe the audiophile term
is "wife-friendly"). Not very good sound quality.

Good audio requires some tradeoffs. A tiny box with tiny drivers and not a lot
of power simply can't reproduce lower frequencies well. There just isn't
enough cone displacement. Likewise, putting those little cubes in places that
are convenient to live around rarely results in placement that makes the most
of what little you have! Well placed speakers are usually in the way. These
minicube systems were designed for people who consider sound quality to be of
secondary importance to unobtrusiveness, and they serve that market well.

Bose realized that not everyone is an audiophile. Some people want to have
sound that's "good enough" without huge tower speakers placed several feet
away from their walls waiting for children to tip them over. Of course, these
people don't want to feel like they're compromising. If you sell them cheap
cubes that are marketed as being "good enough", they'll stay away in droves!
If you market those "good enough" speakers as audiophile grade and charge a
proportionate amount for them, people will buy them. Even more amazingly,
they'll be _happy_ with them. Audio is one of those rare sectors in which you
can actually make people more satisfied by overcharging them. Bose realized
this.

Prioritizing convenience over sound quality and charging premium audiophile
prices for compromise-making products is something Bose does indeed have in
common with Apple. Mp3's are in no way a step up in sound-quality over CD's,
but mp3 players were a tremendous improvement in convenience over portable CD
players. There were mp3 players before the iPod, but the iPod was the first
"premium" mp3 player. The first iPod's and their crappy buds cost more than a
top of the line Sony discman with some rather nice cans, and people bought
them in droves!

So, I agree that Apple has taken a page out of Bose's playbook, but I disagree
with your statement than Bose was ahead of his time. Bose's timing was perfect
and his company was wildly successful as a result.

~~~
dietrichepp
> A tiny box with tiny drivers and not a lot of power simply can't reproduce
> lower frequencies well.

I'd like to expand on this. The tradeoff has three variables: enclosure size,
amplifier power output, and low frequency response. The reason is because as
the audio frequency goes below the resonant frequency, the speaker efficiency
drops (and eventually you run into Xmax limitations too). Resonant frequency
scales with enclosure size.

Low frequency noise sounds good so a lot of speakers have deep resonances that
exaggerate a specific low frequency at the expense of accuracy. Cheap, and
impressive in the showroom, as long as you don't listen too carefully.

One speaker designer took the tradeoff in a completely different direction:
mount a 10" speaker in a small cube, and use a very high-power amplifier to
drive it below its resonant frequency. The speaker had to be specially
designed with extremely high excursion (Xmax) and a voice coil that won't
melt. The amplifer had to be specially designed to absorb a powerful back EMF
as the moving speaker sent current back to the amplifier.

Apparently, the result was a subwoofer that satisfied not only the designer
but his wife, who didn't want more "furniture".

~~~
raverbashing
Interesting

On the premise of Bose equipment being "good enough" it should be measurable
(in real units, not "audiophile unicorn units"

Makes me wonder if it would be possible to have a better bass response
exploiting non-linear effects and doing some "magic" (that is, some heavy
signal processing and feedback loop including a mic)

~~~
dietrichepp
> Makes me wonder if it would be possible to have a better bass response
> exploiting non-linear effects and doing some "magic" (that is, some heavy
> signal processing and feedback loop including a mic)

Non-linear effects of what? Speakers? Air? What would the microphone do? (Keep
in mind that sound has to travel through air, which takes time, before it
reaches the mic.)

You can already get better bass response by equalizing the signal fed to the
amplifier, but the trade-off here is that it requires a bigger amplifier (and
a speaker with higher Xmax).

~~~
raverbashing
"Non-linear effects of what? Speakers? Air?"

Air. Like this
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_from_ultrasound](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_from_ultrasound)

(yes, the article is not very good)

~~~
dietrichepp
That requires a large amount of power, so you'd still have a big amplifier.

~~~
raverbashing
Well, not really.

See how big automotive amplifiers are for a given power. What makes home
appliances big is usually a huge transformer inside (which for audio quality
is good, even though switched power sources are getting better) AND the
feeling that light/small is not good

A modern consumer audio system is around 80% empty space inside.

------
sunnybythesea
His last lecture here for those interested [http://video.mit.edu/watch/dr-
amar-g-bose-last-lecture-of-fa...](http://video.mit.edu/watch/dr-amar-g-bose-
last-lecture-of-fall-96-acoustics-course-6698/)

------
rb2e
As a ex sound engineer and now self described audiophile, I deeply admire and
respect Bose products. Though expensive, I loved my Bose speakers till they
fell off my computer desk onto the floor. The small cube satellite design with
the sub on the floor, filled the room considering there such small size. They
were good enough for me to mix and master with for my friends projects.

RIP Dr. Bose

~~~
nawitus
Nobody in audio respects Bose products, though. They're overpriced and low-
quality.

~~~
LaunoRagnheiour
What about the sound engineer you just replied to?

~~~
tossmeup
Being a sound engineer doesn't mean you have good ears or produce good work,
etc. It means someone is paying you to do a job. I post on HN because I'm a
founder. I've founded 3 companies. None of which lasted more than 2 years. I
use BIC ballpoint pens. Their clear plastic never failed me.

~~~
LaunoRagnheiour
If you're going to argue by appeal to an unnamed authority like "everyone"
it's just as easy to refute your argument using the inverse appeal.

So basically all your words are meaningless.

------
peterarmstrong
Wow, someone dies and there's so much negativity about headphones.

\--

I should leave it there, but since everyone is talking about headphones, I'll
play too...

I love the QuietComfort headphones. This is true, even though they are
expensive and I've broken a number of them. They are simple, so my bluetooth
Sennheiser headset remains on the shelf. They are light and comfortable: I
often wear them for 12 hours in a day. They have good sound. They have
contributed to so many coding and writing zones over the past ten years I've
lost count. They're probably the single most important productivity tool I
own. They don't leak sound (unlike open headphones -- I had a pair of really
great Sennheiser headphones that made my cubicle neighbours crazy years ago,
as Portishead apparently sounds like torturing cats when listened to on open
headphones). They are great for air travel. Hell, when you combine them with
earplugs they even make float plane trips passable.

So, thanks Dr. Bose for one of your company's products.

------
robg
Never took venture capital or IPO'd; gave his company to MIT.

------
tapsboy
The Bose trio is an inspiration to many in India 1) Jagadish Chandra Bose 2)
Satyendra Nath Bose 3) Amar Bose

~~~
swatkat
Subhas Chandra Bose too; albeit not in sci/tech context.

------
mrkmcknz
Bose.com have a pretty nice tribute running right now:

[http://www.bose.com/remember/index.html](http://www.bose.com/remember/index.html)

------
pdevr
RIP.

Are there any other faculty members (not necessarily at MIT) who have managed
to start their own companies which became successful, and yet have stayed on
as a faculty member? That itself seems to be a rare achievement.

~~~
acjohnson55
Barry Nalebuff of Honest Tea is a professor at Yale. I didn't really know
anything about him or his company until I saw him speak yesterday, but both
are quite impressive!

~~~
auctiontheory
Barry is a Professor at the Yale School of Management. He seems to be one of
the few business school faculty (i.e. not a technologist) to have founded a
successful product company. As opposed to a consulting company, of which there
are many examples.

I remember when CK Prahalad took a leave from Michigan to start Praja, but I
don't think it was very successful.

------
chiph
I had a set of Bose 901 speakers in the 1980s. They were a really innovative
design, and certainly not "wife-friendly" with their requirement that the wall
behind them be a certain size and distance away.

It had 8 smaller drivers facing towards the wall, angled to reflect off it and
produce a more ambient sound. And one driver facing towards the listener to
provide the direct sound needed for vocals. The speakers (heavy, heavy
speakers, btw) had an earlier version of their waveguide technology, which
channeled the back pressure of all the small drivers and combined them to
provide the bass that a larger driver would have produced.

In order to correct some of the bad behavior of the small drivers & enclosure,
there was an external electronics box that you inserted between your preamp
and amp, or in a tape loop if you had a receiver (it had pass-thru capability)
to get the speakers to sound right. Once DSPs became affordable, they changed
over to them, instead of the analog components the series of 901 that I had
used.

I think I paid $1300 at the military exchange for the pair, and the
(essentially required) Bose stands were another $200 or so. Which was a lot of
money at the time (CD players were still $500). But I had bragging rights
until I got written-up by playing them too loudly. The 901s definitely
preferred a high-current amp -- I used a Hafler 200 watt MOSFET amp. A Sony
integrated-circuit based receiver went into shutdown trying to drive them.

------
cmbaus
I'm glad to see this article at the top of Hacker News. It is easy to not
realize how big audio was in consumer electronics all the way up until the
early 80s.

Many of the great engineers of their day worked in audio, and I find myself
continually attracted to their creations. Many who work in software today, may
have been building amplifiers and speakers in the 60s.

------
tt
His Acoustics class was arguably the best course I took at MIT. His numerous
anecdotes about hard work, perseverance, and applying thought process to every
challenge we face really stuck with me. The end-of-semester field trip left a
long lasting impression. He made me a better person I am today. I'll really
miss him.

------
b1daly
He obviously was a tremendous achiever, but the current Bose products I have
heard are terrible sounding.

The signal processing they add to create the "spacy"effect destroys the mix,
the balances of the instruments, the placement, it's all lost in a hazy phase
fog of sound. I don't get it.

To my ear, even many of the cheap desktop systems from companies like
Logictech sound better.

If you're looking for decent sound at a low price, there are many low cost
powered studio monitors that sound pretty good, like these from M-Audio:

[http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=studi...](http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=studiomonitors)

I don't think they are good as professional monitors, but for everyday
listening pretty damn nice.

------
pvdm
He was an inspiring speaker but I avoided his company's products. Due to no
fault of his own, the company that bears his name turned into a marketing
driven company rather than engineering driven.

------
paul9290
Any audiophiles here know if we'll ever witness Bose or Sonos type
speakers(sound) built into our mobile devices?

Full disclosure - We created a web app that plays audio in sync across
multiple Internet devices ([http://SpeakerBlast.com](http://SpeakerBlast.com))
& are curious about the advances being made in this field.

Could our IP devices used alone or in harmony ever produce the same sound
quality of a Bose or Sonos speaker?

------
AlexPandian
Bell, Morse, Land, Kurzweil, Bose, ... the list of Boston associated inventors
is never ending. Then again Polaroid or Bose corporation can't compete with
the limelight of the web world.

Most audiophiles buy stuff very few people have heard off, and Bose products
themselves are on the fence of trying to be audiophile, yet popular ... a
tricky space to be in.

------
aarondf
I remember being blown away by Bose active suspension, and wondering why Bose
was doing it. Seems like a Google play in a way: make a bunch of money in one
area (audio/ads) and do awesome stuff in another (active suspension / cars,
glass).

Video of active suspension:
[http://youtu.be/q8sVDenpPOE](http://youtu.be/q8sVDenpPOE)

Incredible company. He'll be missed.

------
nanospider
Interesting that in the spirit of the usual startup discussions here on Hacker
News, no one has mentioned that this is/was a single founder company.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation)

Kudos to Dr. Bose.

------
shiven
Dr. Amar Gopal Bose, you will always be remembered. Thank you for the
inspiration. R.I.P.

A short biographical sketch:
[http://flic.kr/p/f8wZ6R](http://flic.kr/p/f8wZ6R)

Another write-up: [http://flic.kr/p/f8wZee](http://flic.kr/p/f8wZee)

------
jpswade
This is a great loss, a man that I only recently learned about through reading
"Autobiography of a Yogi", which mentions his great achievement as an eastern
scientist, breaking out into a western world.

I hope Hacker News black lines today out of respect for this man.

------
rblion
My name is Amar too. A sad day for innovators named Amar. Shine On buddy,
thank you for the contributions to audio technology that has enriched millions
of lives. :)

------
bzelip
damn, i loved my dad's 380ZX soundsystem. its what turned me onto hi fidelity.
neat to know it was named after someone and that he went to MIT. peace

------
gprasanth
Silence.

