You could work for any manufacturer, past or present...

I like the Space Pens......y'know, the ones' that would write upside down?
*S*  Priceless when you're on your back too messed up to sit up....

Actually, there was a black market for them...the aliens couldn't get enough of them.  When they were discontinued, they were pissed (or their version of it.....you really don't want to know how it's done....).

Anyway....they got so upset over that, they're going to return and waste the planet.  It'll take them a while to get back to this sector, but they've got this new virus that starts slowly, but is supposed to wipe us off like snow on a windshield...

..it was hard to tell if they were kidding....

Humor was never their strong suit....

Don't really buy into this fandom and realistically most of the audio companies listed are working on stuff way too "simple" to catch my interest so I am loathe to pick individuals. But, if I had to make a choice, I would take Burr-Brown and ADI in their haydays of converter design, with Toole at the National Research Council in Canada, Fraunhofer Institute when they were developing MP3 and working on AAC, heck I would take BOSE when they were developing the original acoustics for the Vette over most of the choices.

McIntosh , JBL

Whoever invented and was making those small suitcase looking record players used for playing 45 rpm singles. They provided more people more fun than the most expensive systems ever could. Lo-fi, hi-fun. In second place whoever invented the transistor radio you borrowed from your Mom so you could listen to the "Top Forty" wherever you were around the neighborhood. Same principle, different application.

Mike