RIP - Dr. Amar Gopal Bose

I disagree with his approach to audio but the guy was a genius and a really good person. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (he taught there) has a good obituary:

Amar Bose �51, SM �52, ScD �56, Bose Corporation�s founder, has died at 83
Amar Bose �51, SM �52, ScD �56, a former member of the MIT faculty and the founder of Bose Corporation, has died. He was 83.

Dr. Bose received his bachelor�s degree, master�s degree and doctorate from MIT, all in electrical engineering. He was asked to join the faculty in 1956, and he accepted with the intention of teaching for no more than two years. He continued as a member of the MIT faculty until 2001.

During his long tenure at MIT, Dr. Bose made his mark both in research and in teaching. In 1956, he started a research program in physical acoustics and psychoacoustics: This led to his development of many patents in acoustics, electronics, nonlinear systems and communication theory.

Throughout his career, he was cited for excellent teaching. In a 1969 letter to the faculty, then-dean of the School of Engineering R. L. Bisplinghoff wrote, �Dr. Bose is known and respected as one of M.I.T.�s great teachers and for his imaginative and forceful research in the areas of acoustics, loudspeaker design, two-state amplifier-modulators, and nonlinear systems.�

Dr. Bose's speakers were designed around using the cheapest possible drivers (with correspondingly non-linear frequency responses) and then using active equalization to correct for said poor frequency response. The problem with this is that this trades the poor frequency response (now corrected) into a poor phase response which smears the stereo image. His first designs incorporated the idea of "Direct Reflecting" which had speakers pointing every which-way. This so muddled the stereo image that this became a non-issue. His large scale acoustic work was stellar and he developed the first true noise-canceling headphones which were amazing (and carried a $999 price tag back in the 1970's). The stuff that Bose Corporation comes out with these days is overpriced for what it does. More money spent on advertising than on research.