As of October, Meridian America's new VP/Sales, replacing the late Ross Keim, was industry veteran Andy Regan, who started his high-end career at Manhattan retailer Sound by Singer. Most recently, Regan was VP/Sales at cable manufacturer AudioQuest. Not uncoincidentally, Joe Abrams has moved from cable manufacturer MIT to AudioQuest.

NHT founders Ken Kantor and Chris Byrne are scheduled to depart from their company at year's end. Loudspeaker company NHT was purchased in 1996 by Recoton as part of its acquisition of International Jensen. Recoton Home Audio Group's Hank Suerth told the press that NHT's "mission to design and market high-performance, high-value loudspeakers for specialty audio" will continue. Byrne and Kantor are to start up a new speaker company, we understand.

Effective around the middle of November, Ira Friedman, president of Snell Acoustics, left to pursue independent plans. Friedman had been negotiating for some time with Andy Kotsatos, CEO of Snell parent company Boston Acoustics, to purchase Snell. Apparently, no agreement could be reached.

David Smith, Snell's well-respected speaker designer for the past couple of years, is taking over as general manager. Larry Bennett continues as Snell's national sales manager.