Dr. Amar Bose has Died

[hjames]

July 12, 2013 - Amar Bose ’51, SM ’52, ScD ’56, Bose Corporation’s founder, has died at 83


Entrepreneur served on MIT faculty for 45 years; championed long-term corporate research.


(http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/obit-amar-bose-0712.html)http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/obit-amar-bose-0712.html

[Not a time for haters, just a statement]

Watch Dr. Amar G. Bose last lecture of his Fall '96 Acoustics Course

http://video.mit.edu/watch/dr-amar-g-bose-last-lecture-of-fall-96-acoustics-course-6698/

[gferrell]

He was quite an innovator.

[Mr. Widget]

Dr. Bose was an amazing man who did so much more than bring us foul sounding little white cubes.


Widget

[SEAWOLF97]

Dr. Bose was an amazing man who did so much more than bring us foul sounding little white cubes.


Widget

Some of their early offerings weren't too bad , they, like AR , could take cheap , stamped out, steel drivers and make them sound OK ..(Marantz did that too)

[Fort Knox]

Some of their early offerings weren't too bad , they, like AR , could take cheap , stamped out, steel drivers and make them sound OK ..(Marantz did that too)
THE bose 901 was truly an amazing little power house (in the 70's night Club's):)

[hjames]

THE bose 901 was truly an amazing little power house (in the 70's night Club's):)

Yep - the Cellar Door in Georgetown had a pair of the Pro versions and they were pretty amazing.

[Fort Knox]

Yep - the Cellar Door in Georgetown had a pair of the Pro versions and they were pretty amazing.

Winston's on M ST was another:)

[opimax]

Was it the Rabbit's Foot on Wisc Ave in Tennley Town? I wanted a set or years, thought they were the standard to compare to

Mark

[Fort Knox]

Was it the Rabbit's Foot on Wisc Ave in Tennley Town? I wanted a set or years, thought they were the standard to compare to

Mark

You can have your cake...there's a pair on Ebay complete :)wActive EQ Ser. ONE for 375......

[hjames]

You can have your cake...there's a pair on Ebay complete :)wActive EQ Ser. ONE for 375......

OOoogh - don't want a pair now, even with EQs -
and I know Opimax has many speakers that he enjoys MUCH better -
but those 901s were the thing back in the day, right?

[SEAWOLF97]

THE bose 901 was truly an amazing little power house (in the 70's night Club's):)

I have a pair of series 2's here that didn't cost much .. they just got plopped into storage, I have no desire to refoam the 18 drivers, and they would be a step down from the current active system in the house.

the 901's sound is what got Consumer Reports in trouble.

[Fort Knox]

I have a pair of series 2's here that didn't cost much .. they just got plopped into storage, I have no desire to refoam the 18 drivers, and they would be a step down from the current active system in the house.

the 901's sound is what got Consumer Reports in trouble.

Consumer Reports is .. the Mad Magazine of test & tune:D

[BMWCCA]

I posted this link in another thread but it works well here given the current events and subsequent discussion:

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/dr-amar-bose-dead-83

[SEAWOLF97]

Consumer Reports is .. the Mad Magazine of test & tune:D

don't agree , tho probably weak on audio gear


I posted this link in another thread but it works well here given the current events and subsequent discussion:

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/dr-amar-bose-dead-83

interesting read. thx. the obvious legal model for that fruity co.
(time to jump in now H)

my 901's do have nice cabinetry tho

[BMWCCA]

.....my 901's do have nice cabinetry tho
Nice to know they spent the money somewhere. It sure wasn't in the drivers!

I particularly enjoyed Fremer's comments on the Bose car audio program junk. Though I don't think the JBL System in the Prius is anything to write home about, either.

[NickH]

For the power user there equipment did not fit the bill.

But for the standard consumer there stuff was hard to beat. Well except for the price that is.

He definitely lived an impressive life, and built an audio emperors that was only surpassed by the late Sidney Harmon.

You might not care for the products. But you have to be impressed by what one man car accomplish in a life time.

God speed.
Nick

[SEAWOLF97]

I particularly enjoyed Fremer's comments on the Bose car audio program junk. Though I don't think the JBL System in the Prius is anything to write home about, either.

The OEM audio system in my 540 is quite good. Never looked to see who made it. The little speakers in the A pillars (front of the side windows) are cool tho.

I did swap out the OEM cassette radio for a Blaupunkt Toronto with a steering wheel mounted "thummer" ...it has the credit card sized security key to unlock.

[BMWCCA]

The OEM audio system in my 540 is quite good. Never looked to see who made it. The little speakers in the A pillars (front of the side windows) are cool tho.
Yep, I agree. Mine's still going strong without any replacement amps, speakers, or even surrounds. I'm still using the same front-end and the trunk-mounted changer. I think you'd be surprised to see that some of those speakers may carry the ITT logo, Siemens, TRW, or others. Never seen a name-brand manufacturer ID that seemed related to audio names we'd recognize. ITT used to make Twinkies, too. Door tweeters seem to be Nokia, at least on my E28 "Hi-Fi Sound" system.

Even the Logic7 H/K stuff doesn't have their name on the components.

[4343]

So it was with no small amount of uncertainty that I bought a Volt with a Bose system a few years back.
All in all the Bose is not too shabby. And it's not like there is a lot of noise to mask any deficiencies.

[Fort Knox]

I posted this link in another thread but it works well here given the current events and subsequent discussion:

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/dr-amar-bose-dead-83

Sounds like the artical they posted on Elvis..right after his death.............

[Lee in Montreal]

Hmmm... Never really was a fan of Bose speakers. I always found the concept of direct/reflecting flawed to start with. But hey, many unsuspecting people bought it and they made Bose rich. Maybe he was very good in marketing and not so much in acoustic. ;)

RIP

[svollmer]

I just refoamed the drivers in my Dad's 901 Series IV speakers. He didn't want me to; I insisted because I just don't like things sitting around not working. They hang in his family room where he uses them for background music. When he really wants to listen, he prefers his L100S speakers in the living room. :applaud:

[speakerdave]

Whatever a person may think about the direct/reflecting idea for speakers, or the Bose applications of it, my recollection of the cultural history is that with their lawsuit Bose helped pioneer corporate bullying of the press, and since that time product reviews as well as other reporting about corporate behavior have been very much more equivocal.

As I remember, CR said that the sonic image of 901's was unstable. Bose sued claiming that was a physical impossibility. DIY speaker duffers such as myself know that sonic image instability is all too possible. My experience with those speakers was that attributing a sonic image to them was excessively generous; it was more like a smear. But assuming that there is an image, instability is inherent in the reflecting idea because perfect symmetry and uniformity of surface locations and materials is very unlikely.

Problems with the soundstage are huge with that speaker, but the soundstage itself is huge, though not well defined, and on first listening it is quite impressive. It fills a gap in the performance of most of the systems of that day which most often sounded like two separate pinhole sources, but it also abandoned what could be accomplished by improving quality in more traditional designs. The 901 offered something recognizably new to people who had never heard a really good set of speakers--a huge untapped market.

But what CR said about it was true.

[macaroonie]

Most 901's I saw in use were ' back to front '. Seems they sounded bettah that way.

Not much sticks in my head as being much good from the Bose stable , the little 301 was cheap and cheerful and had a use in corners in pubs and such.
Not much of a heritage really.

[speakerdave]

Most 901's I saw in use were ' back to front '. Seems they sounded bettah that way.

As I recall, the pro version, the 1801, was meant to be used that way.

[macaroonie]

And then the 802 i think ?? All I was saying really was I did notice that people had intuitively arrived at a preferred listening arrangement that was the opposite of the design goal. Saw that on more than a few occasions.

Might have been better , i think they sounded horrid either way round.

M

1801 was that lump of an amp , Now it wasn't so dreadfoul as I recall.

[speakerdave]

And then the 802 i think ?? . . . . 1801 was that lump of an amp , Now it wasn't so dreadfoul as I recall.

Yes, I think you're right.

[macaroonie]

Now you have me thinking ( not always a good thing ) wasn't the Bose amp a Phase Linear clone or OEM from PL for Bose. It certainly didn't have typical Bose construction. The hand of Nelson Pass maybe ?? :dont-know:

My BS , Bob Carver if it was anyone.

[SEAWOLF97]

Now you have me thinking ( not always a good thing ) wasn't the Bose amp a Phase Linear clone or OEM from PL for Bose. It certainly didn't have typical Bose construction. The hand of Nelson Pass maybe ?? :dont-know:

My BS , Bob Carver if it was anyone.

my understanding always was that it was produced by BGW ... the one with the big white lighted BOSE logo that was the power switch.

[macaroonie]

Thats the one Tom ... well done , maybe .....

[loach71]

my understanding always was that it was produced by BGW ... the one with the big white lighted BOSE logo that was the power switch.

Some folks think the 1801 series was related to the Peavey amps of yore...
Who knows?

[SEAWOLF97]

Some folks think the 1801 series was related to the Peavey amps of yore...
Who knows?

possibly. all I know of it was audio gossip. The one that I saw looks too well made to be an actual Bose product.

How ya doing , Tim ?

[Fort Knox]

Whatever a person may think about the direct/reflecting idea for speakers, or the Bose applications of it, my recollection of the cultural history is that with their lawsuit Bose helped pioneer corporate bullying of the press, and since that time product reviews as well as other reporting about corporate behavior have been very much more equivocal.

As I remember, CR said that the sonic image of 901's was unstable. Bose sued claiming that was a physical impossibility. DIY speaker duffers such as myself know that sonic image instability is all too possible. My experience with those speakers was that attributing a sonic image to them was excessively generous; it was more like a smear. But assuming that there is an image, instability is inherent in the reflecting idea because perfect symmetry and uniformity of surface locations and materials is very unlikely.

Problems with the soundstage are huge with that speaker, but the soundstage itself is huge, though not well defined, and on first listening it is quite impressive. It fills a gap in the performance of most of the systems of that day which most often sounded like two separate pinhole sources, but it also abandoned what could be accomplished by improving quality in more traditional designs. The 901 offered something recognizably new to people who had never heard a really good set of speakers--a huge untapped market.

But what CR said about it was true.

Mics could have easily picked horn movements in a reflected fashion..

[BMWCCA]

Mics could have easily picked horn movements in a reflected fashion..

So reflecting the sound one more time before it hits the listener's ears, as the 901 would do, wouldn't smear the soundstage even more?

It's like adding reverb to a live recording. It might change the sound and even provide an interesting experience, but it's not accurate.

[Mr. Widget]

The 901 offered something recognizably new to people who had never heard a really good set of speakers--a huge untapped market.

But what CR said about it was true.I'm not so sure if from a stereo reproduction standpoint there were very many good alternatives. Sure you had the big Altecs and JBLs that were more dynamic and capable of phenomenal dynamics with the realistic power available at the time, but I remember being in a shop comparing the 901s powered by a Mac MC2300 and it sounded a hell of a lot better (whatever that means) than the more costly McIntosh speakers that filled the shop. Yes they were "direct reflecting", but they also were full range drivers with no messy crossovers to screw up the sound. The first version used the same CTS drivers that Auratone used. That speaker was more of a studio staple than even our revered 4310!

On the Consumer's reports front... I rarely agreed with their audio reviews as they were far too specification centric as opposed to actually listening to the gear, but I will give them the tip of the hat on this one.

And now back on topic, I think Bose the man, was a pretty phenomenal dude. He was truly dedicated to his ideas of sound reproduction and MIT where he taught for decades and at the end left his privately owned company to benefit the school. That is pretty impressive to me. That is a far cry from the shenanigans of old Sidney who like the traders at Goldman Sachs bought and sold his company and played let's make a deal with people's lives and careers like the little pawns we can be thought of by corporate titans.


Widget

[Fort Knox]

So reflecting the sound one more time before it hits the listener's ears, as the 901 would do, wouldn't smear the soundstage even more?

It's like adding reverb to a live recording. It might change the sound and even provide an interesting experience, but it's not accurate.

OK....Let me clarify .... :)in an Orcastra for instance....
Horns tend to beam sound out..... and if the musician's throwing that around at an amphaitheatre ceiling the Left/Right mics
are gonna be busy....and you may get the recorded impression that musicians are actually doing the moving.....

[BMWCCA]

That is a far cry from the shenanigans of old Sidney who like the traders at Goldman Sachs bought and sold his company and played let's make a deal with people's lives and careers like the little pawns we can be thought of by corporate titans.I don't doubt your knowledge but are you sure you're not blaming Harman, the man, for what happened after he sold the company to Beatrice in 1976 to be appointed US under-secretary of Commerce? Later he seemed determined to put the company back together and, it would appear, ran it pretty well until retiring in 2006 at the age of 88. That seems to be when the sh*t really began to hit the fan!

[BMWCCA]

Orcastra


Something to do with whales, perhaps? :dont-know:

[Fort Knox]

Something to do with whales, perhaps? :dont-know:

OK so my spelling sucks.....

[WDJ]

The pro "version" of the 901 was the 802. The 901 had eight speakers in the back (flat sides) and one in the curved front - the 802 had eight speakers in the front and I don't think any in the back. Pretty hard to say that they were able to be judged as "versions" one another Still, sorry to see the man go....

[BMWCCA]

OK so my spelling sucks.....

If you're excusing the smearing of the 901s because of one possibly bad recording or a characteristic of the venue, fine. But otherwise there's nothing the direct-reflecting design can contribute that isn't Kodachrome to the original music.

[Fort Knox]

If you're excusing the smearing of the 901s because of one possibly bad recording or a characteristic of the venue, fine. But otherwise there's nothing the direct-reflecting design can contribute that isn't Kodachrome to the original music.

I'd be ineterested to hear the famous .....CR test music on a set of 901's series 1

[Fort Knox]

As a tribute to Dr. Bose...I turn my A7's to the walls....
And frankly .....I like the sound...its big:)

[SEAWOLF97]

may have related this story before, but ...;)

At my last job, had an idiot manager, total moron (but God's gift to women, in his mind) .....he climbed the corp ladder by kissing butts of superiors (I thought everyone was superior to him, but he wouldn't kiss mine).

Anyway, he liked throwing parties for the company. Prepping for his big Xmas party, he went out and bought a Bose sub/sat system and bragged about it constantly.
We got to the party and he started babbling about the great Bose sound. The little white cubes were suspended from the ceiling in each corner of the room. Sounded like crap to me, so I stood up on a chair and investigated why the treb was so bad. All the cubes were about an inch from the wall and turned to face the wall itself.

I rotated them towards the room and it did improve. Many people applauded. Still wasn't all that great, but better. He stood there looking embarrassed, silently taking snide remarks from his boss about "don't you know how to hang speakers ?"

Guess who was in the first round of layoffs ?

[hjames]

Dr Amar Bose is still dead tho, isn't he?

Bose Corp will live on and fund MIT -
... god knows what those Harmin' Carbon folks will do to JBL next ... sigh ...

[Fort Knox]

Dr Amar Bose is still dead tho, isn't he?

Bose Corp will live on and fund MIT -
... god knows what those Harmin' Carbon folks will do to JBL next ... sigh ...

Who owns Harman Cartoon?? I saw a group of DD67000 auditions on U-Tube
and they were all Japineese....show cases???

[Mr. Widget]

Who owns Harman Cartoon??The World... it's a publicly traded company.

Nothing inherently wrong with that except for the fact that in this era of quarterly number chasers, the company like so many others is being run by green visored near sighted money men.


Widget

[1audiohack]

As a tribute to Dr. Bose...I turn my A7's to the walls....
And frankly .....I like the sound...its big:)


Thats funny!

[SEAWOLF97]

my understanding always was that it was produced by BGW ...


Some folks think the 1801 series was related to the Peavey amps of yore...
Who knows?

I read this is an eBay ad ,,, FWIW . may have contributed to the confusion.

BGW was founded in 1971 in California by Brian Gary Wachner, hence the name BGW. The big break for Brian was a 1974 contract with Universal Studios in which he was commissioned to build thousands of his BGW 750 power amplifiers for use in theaters and theme parks. Unlike most Audio Industry companies, from that time on BGW was incredibly diversified in Military, Professional, Industrial and Consumer audio products. Brian also established an excellent in house sheet metal fabrication facility and that also led to further diversification building OEM chassis for a wide array of electronics companies. Brian passed away in 1997 and in 2003 the company was sold to ATI (Amplifier Technologies, Inc.). One of the problems when you name your company after yourself and then it is sold, sometimes the new owner company wants to divorce itself from the original owner.

[tomt]

59565

i feel that this man has

done more harm than good.

summed up here -

59566


and those bose car amps that got (really) hot -

59567

[Dan]

59565

i feel that this man has

done more harm than good.

summed up here -

59566


and those bose car amps that got (really) hot -

59567

At one Bose show room that I visited I asked the sales person if I could see the amp that they were using on the BOSE AM-5. It was a Crown Macro Tech 1200 hidden in another room.

Dan

[fpitas]

i feel that this man has

done more harm than good.



Not sure he was any worse than any number of other opportunists making flim-flam audio equipment. He was just good at it, that's all.

[HCSGuy]

At one Bose show room that I visited I asked the sales person if I could see the amp that they were using on the BOSE AM-5. It was a Crown Macro Tech 1200 hidden in another room.

Dan

I think my Dad still has the DBX BX3mkII that I bought off of our Bose rep, though he had said it was used on the Bose Demo van to power 901's, not acoustimass sub/sats. It runs his 250Ti's very nicely, though he may have replaced it with a Parasound 5250 - I don't remember:(