well, there is an absolute speed of sound in a medium with uniform density.
furthermore, sound energy and acoustic wave propagation can be described using Maxwell's equations for electromagnetic wave propagation:
http://www.physicsofsound.com/
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These equations are the sound analogue of Maxwell's equations for electromagnetics. Frequently, even in textbooks, sound is represented as a scalar pressure wave, and the vector part u of the wave is ignored. One notable exception is the rigorous text by Landau and Lif****z. Most of my career was spent working with Maxwell's equations, and despite the obvious differences, the parallels with sound theory fascinate me.
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one reason that electromagnetic and gravitational wave may travel at the speed they do may be a function of the properties of spacetime itself, just as the speed of sound is a function of the property of the medium it travels through.
maybe one could test this by determining if light had a faster speed in an earlier, denser universe.
physicist Joćo Magueijo suggests that in the very early days of the universe light traveled faster than it does today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Magueijo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varying_speed_of_light
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9811018v2
i mean do we "really" understand the nature of the structure of spacetime?
would it not be in our best interest to try and fully understand the very structure of the universe that we live in?