Dr. Bose has single-handedly changed the automotive audio industry.
Editor’s Note: Acoustic engineer, inventor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, and founder of the loudspeaker manufacturer bearing his name Amar G. Bose died July 12, 2013, at age 83. The Philadelphia native invented his new kind of stereo speaker, based on psychoacoustics, in the early 1960s. He founded the Bose Corporation in 1964, which introduced the 901 Direct/Reflecting speaker system in 1968 and later the Wave radio and noise-cancelling headphones. Bose’s company began engineering speakers for automobile stereos in the early 1980s, quickly becoming the most popular purveyor of premium car audio systems. About the same time, Bose and his research engineers began work on adapting power amplification, high-speed switching, and electronics to automotive electromagnetic suspensions. Bose hinted at this development in an interview with Jamie Kitman for Automobile more than six years before he unveiled the Bose Electronic Suspension to the automotive press. Kitman’s interview with Bose, first published in November 1998, is reprinted below.
Photo Gallery: Dr. Amar Bose: Making Waves - Automobile Magazine