Hasta La Ideas

Born in 1929 in Philadelphia, Amar Bose grew up with an interest in electronics. While still a teenager, he started a business repairing radios and model trains. He eventually pursued a degree in Electrical Engineering at MIT. After gaining his doctorate, he became an MIT professor.

In 1956, Dr. Bose purchased a high-end stereo system. He was disappointed with its performance, and wanted a speaker system that could deliver concert hall results within the confines of one’s home. Nothing like that existed, so Dr. Bose set about researching acoustics in order to invent something that would meet his wants.

By 1968 Bose, now running his own company, released the Bose 901. The revolutionary design of these stereo speakers featured nine drivers each, one facing the listener, eight facing the wall behind. The reflected sound created the sense of concert-hall-like acoustic spaciousness that Bose sought. And the gentle curve across the front of the housing became a persistent Bose design cue.

The 901 went on to become one of the most commercially successful speaker systems of all time. It went through four iterations, and remained in production from 1968 to 2017—nearly 50 years.

To celebrate their 60th anniversary this year, Bose tapped fashion designer Ronnie Fieg, founder of fashion brand Kith, to collaborate on a re-release of the 901. Fieg in turn pulled in Brooklyn-based furniture designer Mark Jupiter as a co-collaborator. Fieg and Jupiter have been generous with sharing in-process shots of their reinterpretation of the classic design:

“Since its debut in 1968, this speaker has stood as a pinnacle of audio engineering. For those that don’t know, the inception of the 901s was a result of Dr. Bose’s visionary pursuit to develop a speaker system that could replicate a live concert in his living room. They leveraged breakthrough technology that used a combination of both direct and reflecting sound to deliver the same immersive listening experience as live.”

Bose has not announced a release date nor prices. Sadly, it appears these may be extremely limited-edition.