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During the summer, I'm usually on the run all day without ever coming home for a pit stop. That's not a big deal, except sometimes my devices can't keep up with me. But Sennheiser's MX75 headphones ($50), part of its new Sport line, are up to the task. Not only are they durable, sweat-resistant, and lightweight; they're also amazingly comfortable.

With such a storied lineage, I have to ask you: When did you first become interested in gear and electronics? Well, despite growing up in a family famous for the invention of the 8-track player, unfortunately, I was not filled in by any of my relatives on the mysterious world of electronics.

I wouldn't count on the CD disappearing any time soon. For one thing, only a third of the homes in this country currently have broadband access. Although most homes with PCs do have broadband, what that tells us is that a lot of people don't have computers. Nor do such products continue to grow as a matter of course.

With few exceptions, multiroom audio systems still distribute music the same way they did 20 years ago: Central stacks of source components and amplifiers route signals to speakers around the home over hundreds of feet of speaker cabling. But this approach has its drawbacks. Resistance, capacitance and inductance build up over long wires, adding up to signal losses and compromised performance.