How can a reviewer possibly put a value on a loudspeaker as costly as the Wilson Audio Specialties X-1/Grand SLAMM? When he reviewed Wilson's WATT 3/Puppy 2 system ($12,900-$16,000/pair, depending on finish) a few years back (footnote 1), John Atkinson said that it was "one of the more expensive loudspeakers around." The Grand SLAMM costs almost five times as much!

The shock news on November 18, 1998---that the highly regarded British speaker brand Mordaunt-Short was to be closed down (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10316/">previous story</A>)---seems to have achieved the desired result. On December 30, Audio Partnership plc announced it was acquiring the Mordaunt-Short brand from TGI plc (Tannoy Goodmans International).

We are saddened to learn of the passing, on December 13, of audio writer Ann Turner. Ann, who was diagnosed earlier in the year as suffering from clear cell carcinoma, was a stalwart of high-end audio magazine <I>The Abso!ute Sound</I>---Editor Harry Pearson tells me he used to refer to her as "the Aquarian War God," a phrase she liked. She was also the inspiration and the driving force behind that publication's web site, <A HREF="http://www.theabsolutesound.com"><I>The Abso!ute Sound</I></A>.

As this is filed, there are only a couple of days until the end of the year, but still plenty of time to get these predictions under the interconnect. You can find part one <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10054/">here</A&gt;, and part two <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10064/">here</A&gt;.

Branding was once reserved for cowhide and breakfast cereals, but changes in the retailing landscape have fostered new approaches for everything from running shoes (Niketown) to cartoon-character merchandise (Disney and Warner Bros. stores) to clothes (Gap, etc.). In the audio market, Bose stores are now common sites in shopping malls, but few higher-ticket companies have taken the brand-store plunge.

J. Gordon Holt, founder not only of <I>Stereophile</I> but also of high-end audio journalism as we know it, reveals all in a comprehensive interview with writer Steven Stone: <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//interviews/66/">35 Years and Just Getting Started</A>.

Time to yank out the old oxygen-free crystal interconnects and gaze into audio's future for 1999. Now that www.stereophile.com has a year under its online belt, we should be able to read the sonic omens with greater resolution, or at least confine our mistakes to minor stumbles. First, we'll see how our <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10067/">prognostications for 1998</A> panned out, and spin them a little to tune in 1999. We'll add reader predictions at the bottom. Got your own predictions? <A HREF="mailto:jiverson@stereophile.com">Send 'em in</A>!

What a year. <I>Stereophile</I>.com ran hundreds of stories in 1998, covering events big and small in the intersecting realms of business, publishing, technology, and music---with some irresistible oddities thrown in here and there as journalistic spice. It's overwhelming to look back over <I>Stereophile</I>'s first full year of online publishing and see exactly how much has happened. We've gone far, and sometimes wide, to bring you the news from an audiophile perspective.

Really Big Hi-Fi came to live with me for a couple of months this past spring in the form of a pair of Tannoy Churchill loudspeakers. They were trucked directly to San Rafael, California from Kitchener, Ontario, in flight cases so bulky they could double as coffins for NFL offensive linemen. Once ensconced <I>chez moi</I>, the Tannoy dreadnoughts provoked bewilderment, alarm, curiosity, envy, admiration, awe, and amazement in all who heard and saw them.