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Sad news this week: We heard from Ken Kessler of the passing of legendary UK engineer Stanley Kelly, who died in his sleep on November 13, after suffering a stroke the previous week. Stan would have been 89 next month. While he was, of course, the "Kelly" of the classic Kelly Ribbon Tweeter, he was also one of the founders of Hi-Fi News and was the only person to have been listed on the English magazine's masthead since Vol.1 No.1, the June 1956 issue. In recent years, Stan had developed a series of high-sensitivity speakers for UK manufacturer Musical Fidelity.

See it, hear it. That is the essence of an engineering project underway at the University of Applied Sciences in Fribourg, Switzerland—one that needs the assistance of a highly qualified PhD student.

Michael Fremer wraps his ears around the Westlake">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/449/">Westlake Audio Lc5.75F loudspeaker in an effort to figure out "what's a pro audio company doing at CES?" Fremer discovers why a brand that, until recently, was rarely heard outside of recording studios is now selling 70% of its products to consumers.

In the race to get satellite radio to market, XM">http://www.xmradio.com">XM Satellite Radio was the first to hit">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11148/">hit the air this past September. But competitor Siriushttp://www.siriusradio.com">Sirius; says they were saving the best for last, and has now announced that its official launch date will be as early next year as February 14, with initial broadcasts reaching Denver, Phoenix, and Houston.

They don't turn over quite as fast as computer equipment, but mass-market audio component product cycles typically last about a year, until the next Consumer Electronics Show comes around. High-end audio products, however, enjoy much longer life spans—sometimes stretching to several years.

Texas">http://www.ti.com">Texas Instruments says it is on a quest to provide "high-performance audio solutions" for the home entertainment market. To prove it, last week the company announced its first stereo analog-to-digital converters supporting the Direct Stream Digital (DSD) specification and the Super Audio CD format (SACD).

For his review of the diminutive Acarian">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/445/">Acarian Systems Alón Petite loudspeaker, Wes Phillips explains that the "li'l guys frequently image like bandits—which some of us just can't resist." Also included is Robert J. Reina's followup review of Alón's matching PW-1 woofer system, from February 1997, along with his take on the Alón Petite.