Pichai is the clearest case we have for an argument we make often: when a room is hard to hear in, the answer usually isn't more volume. We knew the place long before we worked in it — one of the city's go-to Thai spots, at the south end of Plaza Saint-Hubert, where the kitchen sends out small plates off a revolving specials list and the table spends the night reaching past each other. 

The original system they had was pieced together from vintage gear — good-sounding, but offering almost no control. Conversation and music were competing, and the only lever anyone had was to turn it up. What they asked for was simple: hear each other, hear the music, at the same time.