Michael Berk

Today we take a look at some more fallout from the personal listening explosion, with an assist from the vinyl revival and the continuing rise of electronic music. Visit a headphone retailer these days, you'll find a lot of models meant, supposedly, for the professional DJ - or at least meant to make the casual listener look like they might be the sort of person who spends a lot of time at the decks.

Seems like not a week goes by without a major manufacturer rolling out a clutch of new and improved AVRs, and this week is no different. 

THERE WERE countless headphone exhibitors at CES 2012: familiar names showing incremental upgrades to longstanding models, Chinese OEMs showcasing suspiciously familiar designs under house brands, upstart firms testing the waters with hybrid driver designs and innovative fit systems, automotive and furniture firms muscling their way into the latest hot retail category.

Affordable audiophile and home-theater gear leaders Emotiva have announced the new XMC-1, the first product to emerge in a revamped lineup of digital products from the company, designed by Moog and B&K veteran digital systems wizard and Emotiva VP of Engineering Ray Dennison.