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I had no idea, back when I set out to put together a music lover's stereo system in the $2500&#150;$3750 range, that while I was beavering away the stock market would tank and credit markets would freeze up&#151;or that the federal government would print money to bail out overextended investment banks, take equity interests in commercial banks, and become the lender of only resort for GM, Chrysler, and Ford. I usually avoid even the hint of political commentary in my audio writing, but I can't resist passing along a quip I'm very proud of: I <I>told</I> all my friends that, if they voted for John Kerry, within four years we'd have socialism, and I was right (footnote 1).

Audiophiles often prefer to listen for themselves before committing to a purchase. But brick-and-mortar retailers are succumbing right and left, partly a result of the economy and partly owing to the trend to online sales. What is the future of high-end audio retailing?

Richard Sequerra was born in 1929 and raised in various parts of the US by his mother, who worked for the Department of State. By the time he was 20, he had launched a freelance career that has since spanned a wide range of technologies. During a stint at Marantz in the 1960s, he worked with Sidney Smith on that firm's famed Marantz 10B tuner, which was sold from 1964 through 1970. Subsequent products have included the Sequerra 1 tuner and the Metronome 7 loudspeaker, originally produced by Sequerra's firm Pyramid and now hand-assembled by its creator, who offers the most recent version via his <A HREF="http://www.sequerra.com">website</A&gt;, for less than half what it cost through retail channels when Sam Tellig praised it in the July 2007 <I>Stereophile</I>. Sequerra's newest transducers&#151;a self-amplified nearfield speaker and matching subwoofer designed for Internet music listening&#151;remain in prototype form; he hopes to sell or license the designs rather than manufacture and market them himself.

Even as Robert Harley was writing his <I>Stereophile</I> <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/mark_levinson_no38_preamplifier…; of the $3995 Mark Levinson No.38 remote-controlled line preamplifier (it appeared in August '94, Vol.17 No.8, p.98), Madrigal Audio Laboratories announced an upgraded, cost-no-object version, the No.38S (footnote 1). At $6495, the 'S is significantly more expensive than the junior version; although it uses the same chassis, power supply, and circuit topology, it's in all other ways a different preamplifier.

At around this time last week, John Atkinson and I left the office and headed out to Bay Ridge to pack up the large and lovely <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/608revel/index.html">Revel Ultima Salon2</a>, voted our "<a href="http://www.stereophile.com/features/1208poty/index1.html">Joint Loudspeaker of the Year</a>" for 2008 and a speaker that JA absolutely <i>adores</i>. He selected it as his overall product of the year:

The May 2009 issue is now on newsstands. The cover's so bright, you gotta wear shades. See that orange LP sitting on the SME 20/12 turntable? That's my copy of Boris's awesome <i>Smile</i>.

Under the soft blue light: Grails' most awesome <i>Interpretations of Three Psychedelic Rock Songs from around the World</i> goes for the ride of its life on the massive SME 20/12 turntable.