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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>RIP Dr. Bose.<p>camera-phone picture of James Barger, Dr. Bose, Christopher Jaffe and Eric Unger at the aforementioned reception: <a href="http://twitpic.com/d2amd3" rel="nofollow">http://twitpic.com/d2amd3</a><p>edit: bose.com has a memorial up: <a href="http://www.bose.com/remember/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bose.com/remember/index.html</a>
"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."<p>Wow. Respect.
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: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSi6J-QK1lw" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSi6J-QK1lw</a>
Bose got a bad rap.<p>In the 80's, everyone agreed Bose products were pretty but overpriced. Unfortunately that reputation stuck.<p>These days, we all gladly pay extra for good aesthetic design (see: Apple, and almost every electronic gizmo on Kickstarter).<p>Bose was ahead of their time.
His last lecture here for those interested
<a href="http://video.mit.edu/watch/dr-amar-g-bose-last-lecture-of-fall-96-acoustics-course-6698/" rel="nofollow">http://video.mit.edu/watch/dr-amar-g-bose-last-lecture-of-fa...</a>
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.<p>RIP Dr. Bose
Wow, someone dies and there's so much negativity about headphones.<p>--<p>I should leave it there, but since everyone is talking about headphones, I'll play too...<p>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.<p>So, thanks Dr. Bose for one of your company's products.
Bose.com have a pretty nice tribute running right now:<p><a href="http://www.bose.com/remember/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bose.com/remember/index.html</a>
RIP.<p>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.
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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.
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.<p>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.
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.
He obviously was a tremendous achiever, but the current Bose products I have heard are terrible sounding.<p>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.<p>To my ear, even many of the cheap desktop systems from companies like Logictech sound better.<p>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:<p><a href="http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=studiomonitors" rel="nofollow">http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=studi...</a><p>I don't think they are good as professional monitors, but for everyday listening pretty damn nice.
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.
Any audiophiles here know if we'll ever witness Bose or Sonos type speakers(sound) built into our mobile devices?<p>Full disclosure - We created a web app that plays audio in sync across multiple Internet devices (<a href="http://SpeakerBlast.com" rel="nofollow">http://SpeakerBlast.com</a>) & are curious about the advances being made in this field.<p>Could our IP devices used alone or in harmony ever produce the same sound quality of a Bose or Sonos speaker?
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.<p>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.
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).<p>Video of active suspension: <a href="http://youtu.be/q8sVDenpPOE" rel="nofollow">http://youtu.be/q8sVDenpPOE</a><p>Incredible company. He'll be missed.
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. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose_Corporation</a><p>Kudos to Dr. Bose.
Dr. Amar Gopal Bose, you will always be remembered. Thank you for the inspiration. R.I.P.<p>A short biographical sketch:
<a href="http://flic.kr/p/f8wZ6R" rel="nofollow">http://flic.kr/p/f8wZ6R</a><p>Another write-up:
<a href="http://flic.kr/p/f8wZee" rel="nofollow">http://flic.kr/p/f8wZee</a>
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.<p>I hope Hacker News black lines today out of respect for this man.
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. :)
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