We have been invited to tour and photograph the Westlake manufacturing facility in Newberry Park, California. This is a wonderful opportunity as they don't make a habit of granting access to the factory. I am most grateful to Sherwood Davies (VP of Manufacturing) for making this possible. This tour will take place after CES, Probably around the middle of January. They want to make sure there is a pair of SM-1's going through final listening tests when we are there.

I am told Glen Phoenix has agreed to an interview. His reputation is that of a hard core perfectionist. For those that don't know, Westlake Audio was arguably the most influential / successful studio design engineering and consulting companies during the 70's and 80's.

I know from my conversations with Sherwood, Glen has some interesting opinions on the direction (or lack there of) Commercial Audio, specifically studio mains. Their main market is now the far East which I am sure comes as no surprise. During a visit last month they had no less than 3 pair of SM-1's in the construction stage for shipment to Hong Kong and Japan. I also noticed a pair of BBSM15's in the final assembly stage as well.

The tour will include all aspects of the design and manufacturing of these esoteric monitors. Steve Schell, I and at least one other member will represent the Lansing Heritage site.

May I suggest to the moderators that a thread be started with members being able to post questions that they would like answered by the people at Westlake?


Should be a great learning experience and a wonderful opportunity to gain some insite into a facinating company.

Ken