As research into the acoustical properties of cable materials advanced over the last two decades, a related field of research emerged to supplement that work. Meanwhile, in Robert Lee’s surround sound workshop, cable design research moved forward alongside those advances.

Lee’s research with materials and the acoustical delivery properties of cables gained insight from once-classified technical work exploring long-distance sonic transmission and the dispersion characteristics of underwater acoustical signals.

That did not happen accidentally or whimsically. For seventy-plus years, highly technical sonic research supported military programs investigating esoteric areas of surveillance. In recent decades, the detection of submarines at long distances and the tracking of high-altitude aircraft and intercontinental ballistic weapons were primary to such efforts. This research was conducted, with different strategic emphases, in North America and Europe (among NATO nations) and in the former Soviet Union.