Branded Audio: How Harman and Bose Entered the Automotive Industry
In the late 20th century, the idea of branded automotive audio was still in its infancy – most in-car systems were anonymous, utilitarian, and treated as a secondary feature. Bringing a recognizable, high-end audio brand into the cabin was a pioneering concept, promising not only better sound, but also a new layer of luxury and identity for automakers to market. What emerged was a key chapter in the history of branded automotive audio, exemplified by two companies with deep expertise in sound who followed very different paths to make their mark on the automotive world.
Both Harman and Bose began as leaders in home audio, but each recognized that the car could be the next frontier for high-fidelity sound. The routes they took to enter and dominate the automotive sector were shaped by different opportunities, challenges, and philosophies.
Harman: Leveraging Expertise and Strategic Acquisitions
Founded in 1953 as Harman/Kardon, by the late 1970s and early 1980s, Harman was widely respected for its high-fidelity home audio systems. However, founders Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon recognized that the home stereo market was slowing, while demand for better in-car audio was growing. More consumers wanted a richer listening experience while driving, and automakers were beginning to see premium sound systems as a selling point.
Harman’s strategy was to leverage its audio expertise in a new, high-volume market: OEM automotive systems. In 1981, the company acquired Cleveland Electronics (aka Cletron), an OEM loudspeaker manufacturer with existing relationships in the automotive space. This provided an immediate entry point into car audio as well as access to specialized automotive engineers and manufacturing processes suited to vehicle integration. This business became known as Harman Motive and quickly grew from about $8 million in sales to nearly $100 million by supplying premium car audio to automakers.
In 1995, Harman took a major step forward with its acquisition of Becker, a German automotive electronics company with a long history as a supplier to Mercedes-Benz and other European luxury brands. Becker brought expertise in advanced radio technology, in-car navigation systems, and compliance with strict vehicle electronics standards. This acquisition gave Harman instant credibility with top OEMs and opened the door to fully integrated, factory-installed infotainment systems.
Harman’s flagship brand retains the original name (Photo: Pexels/Daniel Andraski)
Through the late 1990s and 2000s, Harman combined Becker’s capabilities with its own US automotive operations to form Harman Becker Automotive Systems. The company secured multi-year, multi-model contracts with major brands such as BMW, Audi, Toyota, Chrysler, and Lexus, and expanded its offerings from stereos to complete infotainment units, navigation, connectivity modules, and branded premium systems under JBL, Infinity, and Mark Levinson. These branded systems allowed automakers to market audio as a key element of the vehicle’s identity, creating a direct link between the car’s image and the prestige of the audio brand – a strategy that boosted consumer awareness and loyalty. This approach helped Harman establish a portfolio that could serve both mid-tier and high-end vehicles, setting the stage for a move into the “ultra-premium” space.
In the 2010s, Harman continued to strengthen its position through targeted acquisitions, purchasing Bang & Olufsen’s automotive division in 2015 to add ultra-premium branding and design, and automotive cybersecurity specialist TowerSec in 2016 to secure connected vehicle systems. These strategic moves – alongside other acquisitions like software companies Symphony Teleca and Red Bend – helped transform Harman from a focused audio supplier into a full-car technology provider, offering entertainment, design, software, connectivity, and cybersecurity solutions all under one umbrella. Importantly, this expansion positioned Harman as a trusted technology partner for automakers navigating the rise of connected, software-defined vehicles (SDVs).
In 2017, Harman was acquired by Samsung for $8 billion, drawn in part by the fact that over 60% of Harman’s revenue came from automotive products. Under Samsung’s ownership, Harman International has leveraged global resources to accelerate innovation and develop next-generation vehicle technologies – expanding into connected services, over-the-air (OTA) updates, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and vehicle-to-cloud technology. The company is also exploring AI-driven in-car experiences, integrating smart assistants, advanced vehicle telematics, and cloud-based infotainment platforms, positioning itself to stay at the forefront of the SDV revolution. Today, Harman’s systems are installed in more than 50 million vehicles for over 30 major automakers.
While Harman built its automotive presence through acquisitions and global OEM partnerships, Bose took a very different route: the journey began not with a business deal, but with a founder’s curiosity and a determination to solve one of audio’s toughest engineering puzzles. . .
Bose: An Engineer’s Challenge and a New Market
For Bose, the move into automotive audio began as an engineering challenge. After founding the company in 1964, Amar Bose observed by the mid-1970s that car audio systems lagged far behind home systems in sound quality. His personal philosophy was that music should sound as close to the original performance as possible, regardless of environment. The car’s interior – small, irregular, and filled with reflective surfaces – posed one of the most difficult acoustic problems he could tackle.
A conversation with Jerome Wiesner, president of MIT, accelerated Bose’s path into automotive. At the time, Amar Bose was a professor of electrical engineering at MIT, and his academic curiosity helped him approach the problem of in-car audio from a uniquely rigorous perspective. Wiesner connected him with executives at General Motors, giving Bose an inside track with one of the world’s preeminent automakers. For Bose, the automotive sector offered not only a technical challenge, but also a way to diversify beyond home audio and tap into a vast, stable market through OEM partnerships – a market where consumer demand for higher-quality in-car audio aligned perfectly with Amar Bose’s own philosophy.
The first step came in 1975 with the Bose 1401, an aftermarket “Direct/Reflecting” speaker system for cars. Although it applied Bose’s acclaimed home audio principles, the product was difficult to install and was discontinued. The lesson was clear: real success would require integration with automakers from the design stage, not just aftermarket sales.
(Photo: Pexels/Ana Frontzek)
By 1979, Bose was in discussions with GM’s ACDelco division to create the first factory-installed, acoustically engineered systems, each tuned to a specific car model’s interior. By 1982, this collaboration was in full gear and in 1983, Cadillac, Buick, and Oldsmobile models debuted with the first Bose-branded premium car audio systems, a revolutionary step in OEM sound, marking one of the first times a premium audio brand was fully integrated into factory-installed systems and signaling a new era in automotive entertainment. The success of these systems led Bose to formally establish Bose Automotive Systems, a division dedicated to custom-tuning audio for each vehicle model.
Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, Bose expanded to other automakers, including Nissan, Infiniti, and Mazda, introducing innovations like neodymium drivers for slim speaker placement, Acoustic Waveguide bass technology, and AudioPilot noise compensation. By the 2000s, Bose was a fixture in luxury cars from Porsche, Audi, and Corvette. The company rolled out advanced technologies such as Centerpoint surround sound and TrueSpace processing, further cementing its reputation for precision audio engineering. Bose also experimented beyond audio with innovations like the “Project Sound” electromagnetic suspension and its commercial successor the Bose Ride active seat suspension system for long-haul truck drivers.
Moving into the 2010s, Bose expanded its automotive presence, partnering with a wider range of luxury and performance brands and introducing updated AudioPilot systems, enhanced surround-sound technologies, and integration with vehicle infotainment platforms. In the late 2010s, the company further advanced adaptive sound environments, improved noise cancellation for quieter electric-vehicle cabins, and refined software-driven audio calibration tools. In the 2020s, Bose continued collaborating with automakers to optimize audio for next-generation in-car experiences, demonstrating ongoing innovation while staying true to Amar Bose’s original philosophy of reproducing music as close to the original performance as possible.
These developments underscore how Bose has maintained its engineering-driven approach, continually refining its systems to meet evolving automotive trends and consumer expectations, setting up a natural comparison with Harman’s business-driven trajectory.
Two Paths to the Same Destination
Harman and Bose entered the automotive sector for different reasons – Harman responded to growing consumer demand and the opportunity to expand into a high-potential market through strategic diversification and acquisitions, while Bose pursued a founder’s technical curiosity and the challenge of delivering perfect sound in difficult environments.
Harman’s approach was business-driven, building scale and capability through targeted purchases and leveraging OEM relationships globally. Bose’s approach was engineering-driven, pioneering OEM-specific sound tuning and creating technologies that shaped the modern concept of premium in-car audio. Whereas Harman often acted as a facilitator partnering with known brands to deliver high-quality systems, Bose developed proprietary innovations in acoustics, speaker design, and noise compensation, positioning the company as a creator of the premium in-car audio experience.
Today, both companies stand as leading suppliers to the automotive industry, and their systems can be found in millions of vehicles worldwide – a testament to how different strategies can lead to similar success when backed by expertise, vision, and innovation. ■
William Claybaugh is a high school student from Manhattan Beach, California, beginning his junior year this coming fall. For two months this summer (July to August), Liam joined Shively Acoustics via the Standout Connect high school internship program, with Roger acting as his mentor. In addition to a variety of support tasks and responsibilities, Liam was given a research assignment looking into the history of branded automotive audio, a topic that generally aligns with his personal interest in the intersection of business, technology, and engineering.
This edition of the SAI Blog is the result of his hard work, as written in his own words. Well done, Liam! ■
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