here is another thought...sounds plausible:
The first episode this season Tony and Bobby B are sitting in a boat. They have a conversation about getting whacked and Bobby says "I bet you don't even hear it coming, it just all goes black" (or something to that extent). Then in last week's episode they revisit that conversation. His family is coming in one by one, first Carmela, he loves her, but has hurt her, so she sits first, AJ, he is blood, he is his only son, but they have had their troubles, he sits second. Then there is Meadow, his princess, he loves her, they had their troubles, but she is the best person out of all 4, so she has the honor of being the last family member seen by him.
Final scene of her coming through the door is being viewed as if we were Tony Soprano, the last thing he sees is the greatest thing he ever put into the world. Then, no sound, blackness, not even music through the credits. Tony got whacked as Meadow came through the door. There is no way to cinematically do Tony's death justice. He was bigger than life for us through the whole show and the writers could not show him killed, there was no way to do it right.