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The music industry's traditional packaged-goods retail business may be continuing its long decline, but the sale of downloadable tunes is hot and getting hotter.

One of audio's true originals, Irving "Bud" Fried first made his mark in the late 1950s by becoming an early US importer of Lowther corner horn and Quad electrostatic loudspeakers. By 1975, he had established his own company and began releasing speaker models under the Fried nameplate.

Sirius">http://www.siriusradio.com">Sirius Satellite Radio has achieved three milestones in its campaign to reach profitability.

Few audio products have proved as enduringly fascinating to audiophiles as William Firebaugh's Well-Tempered Turntable design. At once elegantly simple and technically sophisticated, it was an immediate hit with music lovers and critics alike—and was long a staple of Stereophile's "Recommended Components" list. For the greater part of the product's 20-year lifespan, the Well-Tempered 'table has been distributed and manufactured under the direction of Transparent Audio, Inc. However, Carl Smith, the Transparent partner who supervised the manufacture of the Well-Tempered line, decided to retire this year, and Transparent determined that it should concentrate on its cable business.

And then there were four: Sony's music division and German media company Bertelsmann, parent of the BMG record label, have decided that they've got a better chance under one roof. Last week, the two companies revealed that they will merge their music divisions into a new company called Sony BMG.

Paul Bolin says that the Balanced">http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/1103bat">Balanced Audio Technology VK-51SE line preamplifier "made a profound impression on me at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show." Once in his very own listening lair, did the BAT continue to impress? PB tells all.

CD prices have been a sore spot for many music lovers. Our own online">http://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/showvote.cgi?242">online polls indicate that Stereophile readers think CDs cost too much (most think they should be under $10), while Stereophile editor John Atkinson has pointed">http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/578/">pointed out that for smaller labels, the economics of CD production only work when the prices are kept higher.