Henry Esplin Kloss (1929–2002)
Greg Weaver
fter dropping out of MIT when drafted into the Army in 1952, and while stationed at Fort Monmouth New Jersey, Henry Kloss enrolled in a night course on high fidelity at NYU. The teacher of that Acourse was Edgar Villchur, the man who had recently conceived the radically new acoustic- suspension loudspeaker. >'$& !*,& -,Cassette Deck with Dolby B and the that he would be responsible for the best- Advent VideoBeam 1000, the first dioxide tape, made the cassette recorder a large-screen projection television selling speakers of each of three distinct true game-changer, and the product that for home use, for which he earned %$1"%$ .& !'$& 23452& 6/& !'$& 789: .& !'$& an Emmy. KLH-6 in the 1960s, and the Advent 1977: Founded Kloss Video Corporation (KVC). Loudspeaker in the 1970s, or for kick- Henry Kloss played a 1978: Invented the Novatron video starting the “home theater” market. tube that dramatically increased the Over the course of his prodigious efficiency of projection TVs. career, Henry Kloss, humble about his seminal role in at 1988: Co-founded Cambridge accomplishments to the end, played a SoundWorks, for which he designed some three dozen products. $;6/")& #,)$& 6/& "!& )$" !& -,<#& ,- & '64\S & least four of hi-fi’s 2000: Co-founded Tivoli Audio. major advances—the acoustic-suspension 2002: Henry Kloss passes away. speaker, transistorized equipment, Dolby major advances. noise reduction, and the cassette. 51 December 2014 the absolute sound