Well, they really haven't cancelled 1.6. Currently they are still working out bugs with it and trying new things. 1.6 is still curently in the beta stage and won't be released to the majority of people until they have everything worked out.
Until they have enough content servers that can manage all the cs players out there they probably won't release 1.6final anytime soon. Yes 1.6 solves the loss of sound problem.(damn windows key)

If you want, you can head on over to www.shacknews.com and sign up to thier fileshack service (don't worry it's free). Search for steam.exe and download it. The steam file will install on your comp and then access the internet to update itself. After that it will see if you have hl.exe installed on your comp and give you the option to play cs 1.6beta. You best have a highspeed connection if you want to try it out though. Steam is meant for fast connections.

If you don't know what steam is, it is basically vavle's online service. Steam allows you to download games and updates to existing games that valve offers. I also hear that you will be able to buy HL2 via steam instead of going to a store and buying it.

Just to let you know if you have 1.5 installed and use steam to play the 1.6 beta your 1.5 will not be overwritten. Steam will save the 1.6 beta in a folder in the steam main folder.

Edit://
Fileshack is here:
http://www.fileshack.com/