I think you're hearing so much about it right now mainly because there are a TON of new products out in the past few years, and this is a result of some new directions in the OEM (chip-level) DSP products. It used to be that fast DSPs in general were all Harvard-model processors with fairly limited memory, so the code written for them had to be clean and concise, and thus it wasn't easy to quickly configure them for different processing arrangements. Nowadays, there are many Von Neumann-model DSPs available, with much more memory, which makes it MUCH easier to write the code . . . and many of the IC manufacturers have developed "modular" programming environments with huge chunks of common applications pre-written.
So for end-user applications, especially in professional sound, there are likewise tons of multi-configurable products that are replacing dedicated boxes. For i.e. a typical simple church sound-reinforcement application, instead of an analog mixer, analog equalizer, analog (active) crossover, and analog peak-limiter(s), you can buy a product like a dbx "Driverack", Ashly "Protea", Rane "RPM-88", etc. that do it all in the digital domain in a single box, all configured however you want it, via a PC. And this is (in general) better, cheaper, and more flexible.
The consequent of this is that if you don't know how to properly tune a system with all the analog stuff . . . suddenly finding the digital equivalents with far more virtual "knobs" to tweek isn't going to make things any better. Some of the consumer products try to get around this by automating the process . . . but IMO very, very few of these approaches hold any promise.
In general, if you get past the whole "it's better because it's new because it's digital!" thing . . . it's all just signal processing. Digital and analog products are somewhat different tools, but the thing that makes it good or bad ALWAYS comes down to the quality of the tool, the skill of the person using it, and its suitability for the intended application.
So for end-user applications, especially in professional sound, there are likewise tons of multi-configurable products that are replacing dedicated boxes. For i.e. a typical simple church sound-reinforcement application, instead of an analog mixer, analog equalizer, analog (active) crossover, and analog peak-limiter(s), you can buy a product like a dbx "Driverack", Ashly "Protea", Rane "RPM-88", etc. that do it all in the digital domain in a single box, all configured however you want it, via a PC. And this is (in general) better, cheaper, and more flexible.
The consequent of this is that if you don't know how to properly tune a system with all the analog stuff . . . suddenly finding the digital equivalents with far more virtual "knobs" to tweek isn't going to make things any better. Some of the consumer products try to get around this by automating the process . . . but IMO very, very few of these approaches hold any promise.
In general, if you get past the whole "it's better because it's new because it's digital!" thing . . . it's all just signal processing. Digital and analog products are somewhat different tools, but the thing that makes it good or bad ALWAYS comes down to the quality of the tool, the skill of the person using it, and its suitability for the intended application.