Powering the golden age of audio

Audio, the spoken word, is humanity's primary means of sentient communication: the sounds a fetus hears in utero; a lover's whisper; a marriage proposal… all leave deep imprints on our hearts and minds. We use sound to accentuate and transmit our emotions; our aural ability is a primary sense that is deeply connected to emotion. In fact, much research indicates that hearing is the most important of the five senses. We detect harmful and dangerous sounds with our ears -- if a fire alarm rings in the middle of the night, we depend on our hearing to alert us of impending danger. While historically sight has been the most valued sense, audio has been catching up.