Since readers from time to time understandably display a natural human curiosity about the backgrounds of the writers and editors who bend their ears each month in these pages, ue will he offering, in issues to come, a series of capsule biographies and autobiographies designed to satisfy that ex pressed need and at the same time to circumvent some of the hazards of mere speculation. -Ed.
Technical Editor: Larry Klein
MOST of Larry Klein's colleagues and friends, if asked simply to write a short biographical sketch, might have difficulty deciding which of his many facets to focus on. One might present him as Technical Editor (for the last twelve years) of STEREO REVIEW, the world's most widely read hi-fi/music magazine, where he generates or processes all the material appearing under the "Equipment" section of the table of contents. In addition to supervising the work of the magazine's roster of regular technical contributors, Larry maintains contact with manufacturers, selects, edits, and writes articles, and produces his regular Audio Q & A and News columns. Another view of Larry Klein might emphasize his back ground in test instruments. His book It's Easy to Understand Electronic Test Equipment, published by Hayden, has so far sold over 40,000 copies, and an audio test instrument he designed is now being studied for marketing by an electronics manufacturer.
To those who know him, however, Larry is much more than an involved audio techno-freak, and so a quick sketch that included even some of his other concerns would have to touch upon the music-lover (mostly rock), the psychologist, the crafts-and-gadgets maker, lecturer, Oriental-art collector, and photographer (other preoccupations, Larry says, are revealed only to very close friends). These close friends include workers in the fields of the physical and social sciences, engineers and designers in the hi-fi industry, and not a few long haired rock freaks. Heavy informational input from these sources, coupled with an ability to marshal and integrate his own knowledge and talents, are particularly useful for his somewhat complicated job at STEREO REVIEW, where he must communicate on a highly technical level with engineers in discussing their design plans and products and then relay information to the average interested audiophile in language he will understand.
LARRY grew up, like his parents be fore him. in New York City. By the time he was in high school, he was so fascinated by the various phenomena of electricity or "electronics," as it was just then be coming known-that he drifted naturally into jobs in local radio-repair shops. When he joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1945 he was already far enough advanced in practical knowledge to be assigned to the White Sands Proving Grounds, where he worked with German and American scientists in setting up instrumentation for the rockets that were the forerunners of the American space program. After his military career ended ("honorably- but I was a really rotten soldier"), Larry sort of settled down in New York's Greenwich Village to attend night school, majoring in the social (psychology, philosophy, sociology) rather than the physical sciences. But during the day he worked for various electronics companies as an equipment designer, test-instrument troubleshooter, technical correspondent, and laboratory technician.
During the early Fifties he became something of an amateur consultant (and later a paid troubleshooter) for a group of early-bird "audiophiles" who hung out at the Electronic Workshop, an elite audio salon still located in the Village. It was through his contacts in these early hi-fi circles that he was offered a job as technical editor of Popular Electronics, a Ziff- Davis publication for electronics hobbyists. After two years in that position he moved on to a similar post with a competing magazine, Electronics Illustrated, re turning to Ziff-Davis again in January of 1963 to serve as STEREO REVIEW'S Technical Editor.
What all that adds up to is perspective: Larry is a first-generation audiophile (the genus is, of course, not exactly ancient) whose unusual blend of inclination and experience has put him just where he ought to be-a kind of ombudsman with a handily situated booth in the middle of the audio marketplace, lending his talents and insights to manufacturer and to consumer alike. Since he is still at it twelve years la ter, one might conclude that he has maintained his credibility, preserved his sense of humor, and enjoyed himself a lot. He has.
- Katrine Barton
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also see: LETTERS to the EDITOR