Bose's father, Nani Gopal Bose had to flee Calcutta due to his activities against the British Rulers. Amar Bose was born and raised in Philadelphia. From his teenage days, Bose was interested in electronics and was used to make small electrical toys to supplement his family's income. 
He went on to study Electrical Engineering at MIT. After completing his Ph.D. from MIT, he started doing research on speaker technology in 1956. Actually it started while doing graduate work at MIT in the 1950s, Dr. Bose decided to purchase a new stereo system. He was disappointed to find that speakers with impressive technical specifications failed to reproduce the realism of a live performance. He aimed to design a speaker that would emulate the symphony hall experience in the home. His speaker system was one of the first to make use of sound reflecting off walls and the ceiling. In 1964 he founded Bose Corporation when he was teaching at MIT and the rest is history. In the initial years, sometimes Bose did not pay himself a salary and worked at night. 

Currently Bose Corporation employs around 6,000 people and is a pioneering name in audio speaker technology.   The word Bose has become a symbol for quality and technical innovations in the world of audio systems.