What is Hi-Fi, Mid-Fi, and Low-Fi ???

Yep. Some of those consoles had really heavy wood, you could make a nice Telecaster body out of the bottom rails of some of them.

 

I have no problem with owning a 'MidFi' system.
Since i can't afford the really good stuff. MidFi will have to do.

(I blew $30,000 on stereo stuff four years ago. Not including any digital upgrades, So I am at least in 'good' MidFi territory) LOL

 

What's that over to the right, an old B&H movie projector?

 

Don't know. Found the pic looking for "1950s high fidelity".

 

It's all relative. I have a McIntosh/B&W/Oppo/Grace Design system. It's sounds great to me, and it's what I can afford. However, compared to what some of our members are listening to every day, there is no doubt it is decidedly mid- fi. And that's OK - gives me something to aspire to... Or at least dream about

 

Apart from this threads's good humor, joshing, and golden retrievering, there's a serious problem with the hi-/mid-/lo-fi labels that reflects the same problem with terms like "high-end" and "audiophile," which is that they're widely associated with invidious snobbery and joyless superiority complexes and ruthless one-percenterism and with attributes that generally apply to a$@#oles. Rather than with a love of great engineering, beautiful sound, getting down with friends, and things that mean a thing because they got that swing. These terms efficiently reinforce all of the needless rifts and tribal splits between people who love listening to music with good gear on all kinds of formats.

Can I also add how much I hate the use of the term "hobby" to describe the pursuit of great musical sound reproduction?

 

It seems that mid-fi implies a known compromise, and there are a variety. Hi-fi would seem to aspire to minimal compromise, which is more slippery. Low-fi implies more than one serious compromise, the result of the combination not necessarily being unpleasing given location and circumstance.

 

Nothing to do with price if you're in a position to be lent great, otherwise pricey gear. Great hi-fi, as with most anything, is great because it's better than the rest. Generally, that means less compromise. And that leads to higher costs and then higher SRPs.

I don't understand why so many members are so determined to mistakenly believe that audio gear is the only material thing where higher costs result in no value to the buyer.

 

I can only identify Hi Fi...

Hi Fi: That which I want to have to improve my system that I can't afford.

 

Hi Steve,
You should give it a read as it's gotten around to exactly what you've said. I thought it might be interesting as a thread topic to run down. I've seen the terms used so much on the forum these days.

Ron

 

We've tried to keep it civil over there.

 

That's exactly what it is, what's wrong with that?

 

I would think 30 grand would put you above MifFi territory.

 

The term always reminds me of the record label started by The Supersuckers. The label's motto is "It's not hi-fi, it's not lo-fi, it's mid-fi. And it's pretty good........often abbreviated to "It's pretty good." The label logo is a depiction of three bars of an equalizer. I had to dig the shirt out of my closet.

 

If money is an object:

Lo-fi: What your Blu-ray player ought to be.
Mid-fi: What your DAC ought to be.
Hi-fi: What your speakers ought to be.

 

And I would think you would call it HiFi!!

 

I know I should be more mature about this, but when someone gets called a dick ............. well it's just funny.
The word "dick" is funny.
and yes, I have the brain of a 6 year old.

 

I don't know about you guys, but I completely gave up buying gear. I just get people to loan me gear!

Why didn't I think of this 40 years ago?

 

And then there's this garbage....

 

Aw now do you have to turn this into a bash REO Speedwagon thread? That was a great make-out cassette in 1980! Cars back then had real back seats!

 

Well, for some of us, it actually IS a hobby. That's what people call it when you build things like speakers and amps.

jeff

 

It's a relative term which makes it interesting!

Back in the 50's, Lo Fi was no such term, but would be a bull horn or maybe an old wind up Grammophone.
Mid fi was no such term, but could be an old AM radio console or a 78 RPM record player with a 12 inch Utah speaker that produced rich warm sound.
Hi fi was popularized in the late 50's which was typically 50-15,000 hz response, not necessarily flat, but reasonably smooth response. The tube consoles and simple one element tweeter crossover resulted in a very natural midrange that many hi fi speakers since then seemed to have lost.

Sadly some of the 50's hifi sets sounded better than the boom boxes of the 90's and most computer speakers today!

 

I see no point in passing the standard DIN 45500 by as the criteria for "High Fidelity". Granted, it's not awfully much, but...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fidelity

High/Mid/Low End is another game: those voluntaristic classes all work within the reference space of Hi-Fi.

 

lofi: 78s
midfi: 45s
hifi: LPs