Rest In Peace Dr. Bose

[JohnMichael]

Amar Bose ’51, SM ’52, ScD ’56, Bose Corporation’s founder, has died at 83 - MIT News Office (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/obit-amar-bose-0712.html)

Thank you for all your contributions to audio.

[Smokey]

I think most agree that his products were over priced for their performance, but he does deserve recognition for his effort to produce better sound thru science.

I owned Bose 402(??) for few years that had two direct/reflective tweeters in each speaker, and they were very solidly build. Sound wise, they needed alot of space around them to sound decent, or they sound like crap (sorry Dr Bose).

[TheHills44060]

I had a pair of 501 series III long ago and they were absolutely fantastic in a large room for background music but thats about it. I admire Bose as a man because he had a dream and made it happen which is not easy to do. The majority of his speakers were less than desirable though. A friend of mine worked at the Bose helpdesk in Boston about 10 years ago and some of the **** they trained him to say was freaking hilarious. He felt horrible spitting out that Bose jargon but hey it was a paycheck at the time.

[harley .guy07]

While I totally agree with you guys that Bose products are poorly made, overpriced, speakers using the cheapest drivers and only making them sound tolerable by designing the cabinet and driver array to try to get the most out of these cheap drivers. I will agree that they have never been a good candidate for a real high end system.

But I did get not this hobby by buying my first speakers, the Bose 4.2 series II. They were real good sounding speakers for me as a beginner into this hobby back in the 80's and their sound got me to take the next step into bettering my system. While Bose products where never true high end products in my mind they did do the job of getting the normal everyday person into listening to music and enjoying it to possibly one day upgrade to true high end. So in that respect I will honor the late Dr. Bose.

[IBSTORMIN]

He produced a mediocre speaker with gimmicks that made it stand out, then priced it high and told everyone it was the best. Even set up rooms to make them sound their best. A lot of people bought his sales pitch. They then went out and bought his speakers for the name to impress their friends. With the cheap to produce speakers and high price, Dr. Bose made a lot of money! Not a builder of a high quality product but a Marketing GENIUS!!!

[Feanor]

He produced a mediocre speaker with gimmicks that made it stand out, then priced it high and told everyone it was the best. Even set up rooms to make them sound their best. A lot of people bought his sales pitch. They then went out and bought his speakers for the name to impress their friends. With the cheap to produce speakers and high price, Dr. Bose made a lot of money! Not a builder of a high quality product but a Marketing GENIUS!!!
This is about the way I see it. Bose contribution wasn't genius and his speaker designs contributed very little, (approaching nothing), to the SOTA. So for example the famous 901 speaker: it relied on numerous small (and cheap) speakers with equalization to provide some semblance of bass at the expense of efficiency; also it relied primarily on reflected rather direct sound to produce a huge soundstage but at the expense of imaging and transparency.

I totally agree that Bose' genius was marketing. I've know quite a few people, (none audiophiles), who assert that a Bose "is the best system I've ever heard". Basically this was because (a) they hadn't hear very many systems, and (2) the Bose system had been set up in a room set up and tweaked for it by Bose representatives. (Meanwhile other makers' equipment was set up ignorantly or carelessly by the local vendor.)