The voice is there. So why do so many of us still reach for the remote or turn on subtitles? The problem may not be volume, but everything that happens to dialogue before it reaches us: the mix, the codec, the television, the room and, finally, our own hearing and attention. In this article, I explore why intelligibility has to be preserved from source to listener — and how technologies such as DTS Clear Dialogue, SpeakBar and Auracast are approaching different parts of the s

What happens when the listener is no longer just at the end of the audio signal chain? Recent research is beginning to measure not only sound, but also what happens in the body, the inner ear, and the brain while we listen. One experimental system has gone further, using neural attention to amplify the conversation a person was trying to follow. In this article, I explore the path from measuring the listener to making human attention part of the audio system itself.

Wired headphones are making a comeback — and it's not just nostalgia. After years of wireless dominating every conversation, the cable is back for a very 2026 reason: USB-C. A universal digital standard that changes what a wired connection can actually deliver. I've been following the signals in the audio industry closely, and the data, the product launches, and the investment decisions are all pointing in the same direction.