Fun question!
I enjoy seeing the advancements in materials used in speakers. The thin-ply carbon in TeXtreme is really impressive stuff. I've done some experiments and validated it when I was at Eminence and then my good friend Matt built it into the compression driver n314x. I left the company before the project was finished but I heard it has a really well-behaved sound like we were predicting during development. I see a couple other drivers on the market with this material and I'm excited to see something with performance similar to the "best" materials like beryllium but at a fraction of the cost.
http://www.textreme.com/markets/audio-2/
Another material I hope becomes mass-produceable is carbon nano-tube technology but in the meantime a Canadian company is making graphene membranes which are also carbon-based. I bought into the kickstarter for the ORA headphones and I'm really impressed with them. It could be that I've never had a premium headphone before, but I'm really amazed how they sound. They are like nothing else I've ever heard.
I'm also excited to see advancements in the digital signal processing realm. The first generation Apple and Google smart speakers solved a problem where the bass output of the speaker would change depending on where you placed it in a room. If you put it on a table in the middle of a room then the bass output would be less compared to if you put it in the corner of a room or up against a wall. These smart speakers had microphones that would detect it and adjust the bass output accordingly so it would always sound good no matter where you put it. They would also adjust how to distribute the higher frequency information to the array of tweeters too so when against a wall it would play a left and right channels to one side of the room and the other, or if in the middle of a room it would be more omnidirectional to fill the whole room and you'd never be on the "wrong" side of the speaker. I love this approach to make the technology "just work" so the consumer can put the speaker wherever the speaker fits into their lifestyle and it will adapt, but the neat trick was it adapted automatically and you didn't have to push a button to go into "corner mode" or "party mode" or whatever like some products have done before.
Speaking of technology advancements, I'm also excited to see my friend Niick join JL Audio a while back. He has some wicked ideas and although I'm out of the loop on the cool stuff he's working on now because I'm at Rockford and we are competitors, I can't wait to see what he's been doing all this time. I'm sure something amazing is on the horizon and I'm looking forward to it. However, I'm doing my best to create amazing stuff at Rockford too so we might have a couple products that I'm excited about when they get released too : )
The other thing that really sticks out to me was watching the Falcon Heavy test launch where Elon's Tesla Roadster was launched into space and the twin booster rockets landed side-by-freaking-side on the launch pad. I remember watching that in real time and I had goosebumps and was jumping up and down yelling at the screen. I guess that was my moon-landing moment where I got to see something magical happen for the first time.
There is also Pozyx which created a local 3d positioning system that is accurrate to within 4 inches. This is kinda like GPS but it's local and uses radio waves and can work indoors or through walls. I find it neat because I've always wondered if you could attach location data to a microphone measurement, then what applications would that open up? If you could map the sound field inside a vehicle or inside a room, would that help you with positioning or aiming speakers or selecting and placing sound treatments?
https://www.pozyx.io/
I love technology so I could go all day with this so I'll finish with a neat little thing we can all afford. The Uni Kuru Toga is a mechanical pencil that automatically rotates the led as you write so you always have the sharp side facing the paper. I had one for a long time but lost it at the office and I just ordered another. The roulette version has a metal body that feels just right in the hand with the perfect weight and I freaking love it. And they are super affordable too. Best $10 I've ever spent on a pencil.
https://www.jetpens.com/blog/kuru-to...e-guide/pt/706