Flexson’s VinylPlay digital turntable was selected by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Design Store to appear in its NYCxDesign 2015 London Tech City collection, “celebrating the best and brightest in British technology,” said the supplier of accessories for Sonos multiroom audio systems Monday. VinylPlay will be demonstrated and on sale in MoMA Design Store outlets during NYCxDesign 2015, a three-day exhibition that begins Friday, Flexson said. Also beginning Friday, VinylPlay will be featured on MoMA's Design Store website, MoMAStore.org, through the end of June, it said. Flexson's London-based design team created VinylPlay “to bridge the gap between complex, audiophile turntables and poor-quality digital decks,” it said. It's “a best-of-both-worlds solution, combining true hi-fi quality with plug-and-play usability and digital functionality, allowing vinyl fans to easily play and digitally archive their records,” and stream them via Sonos, it said.

U.K.-based Crystal Acoustics introduced a Wi-Fi device that it said enables users to connect a group of disparate audio devices to create a wireless multiroom audio system. The WiDAPTOR operates over Wi-Fi and transmits to any active speaker or hi-fi system, said the company. The USB adaptors can be connected in parallel, enabling users to control all zones from a smartphone or tablet, listen to different songs in different rooms and listen to the same song in all rooms, it said. The $55 device also supports USB music playback from a thumb drive or hard-disk storage device, said the company.

CSR launched three wireless soundbar “example designs” that give audio manufacturers “complete and flexible” platforms to bring entry-, mid- and high-end soundbars to market, it said. Citing Research and Markets data predicting the global soundbar market will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent by 2018, CSR said its designs allow CE makers and original design manufacturers to capitalize on the market by bringing together the silicon technologies, software and configuration tools to support source to speaker processing. “The requirements for features, performance, cost and conformance with power consumption regulations place a heavy burden on the development resource needs of a manufacturer entering or growing a portfolio of products for this market,” said Anthony Murray, senior vice president-business group. CSR addresses this by enabling rapid development of differentiated products, he said. By integrating the DSP, a microcontroller, analog and digital interfaces and wireless connectivity into one SoC device, the CSR8670 entry-level platform reduces overall system complexity and the bill of materials for the customer to create single-chip 2.0- or 2.1-channel soundbars, said CSR. The entry-level design supports analog and digital inputs, audio decoding and post processing, a wireless subwoofer and Bluetooth audio streaming, including support for CSR’s aptX codec, from smartphones, tablets, PCs and laptops, it said. The mid-tier platform uses CSR’s MAPX7 audio DSP that enables multiple decoding and post-processing options for an immersive listening experience, which could be CSR’s meloD suite or third-party processing such as Dolby or DTS, it said. The high-end product adds to the mid-level offering with support for high-res audio decoders and post-processors from Dolby and DTS, it said.

Declining manufacturing costs helped contribute to 12 percent growth in headphone revenue last year, despite only a 4 percent rise in average retail price, said a Futuresource Consulting report. Lower manufacturing costs mean vendors are finding “increasing value” in building in more of the “sophisticated features” that are in heavy demand, thereby driving higher sales and more revenue, Futuresource said. Worldwide shipments of headphones grew by 8.5 percent in 2014 to 310 million units, generating $9.4 billion revenue, it said. Despite increasing fragmentation in the headphone market, Sony, Philips, and JVC continue to hold the top three spots, said Futuresource, with 31 percent of shipments worldwide. Apple EarPods have gained ground to hold a 5 percent share globally, and Beats by Dre headphones have grown in volume globally by leveraging Apple distribution networks, it said. Microphones have become a common feature across all types of headphones, growing by 58 percent last year as mobile device ownership grows, said Futuresource. Headphones with microphones were 36 percent of worldwide headphone shipments, and in-ear headphones were 60 percent of shipments, it said. The Bluetooth category continues to expand and is forecast to account for 21 percent of global headphone sales by 2018, said the researcher. Sport headphones are another growth category, led by yurbuds, Jaybird, Jabra and Parrot.

Homewerks, a residential plumbing and HVAC supplier, added a second model to its Bluetooth-enabled bath fan line. The step-up version adds a second speaker for stereo sound and a blue LED night light, said the company. The Home NetWerks Bluetooth Bath Fan comes with a waterproof remote control with a suction cup wall mount. Range is 30 feet from a smartphone, tablet or laptop, and Bluetooth pairing is automatic after initial setup, said the company. The speaker fan is available at Home Depot for $159.

Denon added to its line of micro hi-fi systems the D-M40 that combines a CD receiver with a two-way speaker system. The 30-watt-per-channel unit charges iOS devices via a USB port that also can play Lossless FLAC, WAV and AAC files, along with WAV and MP3s, Denon said. The headphone amplifier has dedicated gain control for personal listening, the company said. The D-M40 is due in stores in June with a suggested retail price of $479.

DTS-HD will be integrated into Alibaba’s set-top box that delivers pay TV, video streaming, video games and other digital content to the China market, DTS said. Alibaba’s Tmall Box incorporates the Amlogic quad-core SoC (system on a chip) and is available on China’s Tmall.com shopping service. Patrick Liu, president-Alibaba’s digital entertainment business, said DTS’ end-to-end technology is key to providing Alibaba’s consumers a high-quality entertainment experience across its extensive content library.

Denon and Marantz announced upgrades for their flagship products to add support for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection 2.2. An upgrade for owners of the Marantz AV8802 AV preamplifier will be available in June, said the company, and the factory-upgraded AV8802 will be redubbed the AV8802A ($3,999), shipping beginning mid-June, the company said. An update is also available for the Denon AVR-X7200W network AV receiver. The HDCP 2.2 upgrade is expected to be available for AVR-X7200W owners beginning May 1, and Denon will start shipping the factory-upgraded version, the AVR-X7200WA ($2,999) beginning mid-May, it said. The products support Dolby Atmos, and upgrades are available for Auro-3D, with DTS:X upgrades coming later this year, they said.

Ultimate Ears unveiled the sixth artist-designed model in its UE Boom line of Bluetooth speakers. The Safe Haven edition UE Boom ($199) was designed by graffiti artist Greg “Craola” Simkins, said the company. The cylindrical UE Boom launched in 2013 and the company has continued to refresh it with new designs. The artist edition speakers “deliver on both the creativity and innovation fronts, and we have even more up our sleeves,” said Rory Dooley, Ultimate Ears general manager.

The IEEE unveiled its 154th "milestone plaque" at Abbey Road Studios in London Thursday in a ceremony to honor the work of Alan Dower Blumlein, the inventor of stereo sound recording. The plaque is for the front door of the studio building, alongside a previous memorial to composer Edward Elgar, and steps away from the famous crosswalk where tourists flock daily to take photos that try to re-create the iconic sleeve for the Beatles’ Abbey Road album. The publicly accessible Abbey Road street name sign has been stolen so many times that the local government authority no longer replaces it, but the Blumlein and Elgar plaques are situated well inside the gated studio grounds, which are now owned by Universal Music Group, so they’re secure. The daylong event to honor Blumlein was held in Studio Two, where the Beatles recorded. Presiding over the event were IEEE CEO Howard Michel, Abbey Road Studios Managing Director Isabel Garvey, Blumlein's son Simon and grandson Alan. The ceremony recognized Blumlein’s contributions to telecommunications, TV and airborne radar before his death in 1942 at age 38 in a U.K. aircraft accident while testing the H2S radar system. More than 100 recording industry veterans, along with some young audio engineers and students, got the chance to sample rarely heard or seen audio and video recordings made by Blumlein, including early stereo music tests made with British conductor Thomas Beecham and Ray Noble, the British bandleader, and the world's first-ever stereo sound film, Trains at Hayes Station. Visitors could also observe, but not touch, original ribbon and moving-coil microphones and disc-cutting heads that Blumlein made by hand while working for EMI in the 1930s. During a series of talks and panels, son Simon Blumlein recalled how his mother had told him how his father had described his dream for stereo. During a pre-World War II trip to the cinema, he had asked his wife to imagine a blind man looking at a screen and seeing nothing, but hearing the sound move with the characters, Simon said.