New Delhi, May 9 -- In 1954, conductor Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra released what was considered a definitive recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. It was meant to capture the grandeur of the Ode to Joy for home listeners.

But when Amar Bose, then a brilliant graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an obsessive music lover, bought an expensive high-fidelity stereo to listen to it in 1956, he was deeply disappointed.

The symphony, which should have felt like a tidal wave of sound, felt more like a trickle. Beethoven's grand design was trapped; the violins didn't soar, and the chorus didn't surround him. While other listeners might have blamed the record or their own ears, Bose, tr...