They will swear to their almighty guru huckster that $10,000.00 vinyl
rigs with $1000.00 vacuum cleaning machines sounds more organic &
real than a $1500.00 digital rig despite SNAP CRACKLE POP still clearly
dominating the sound..
@freediver It might interest you do know that poor high frequency overload margins at the input of the phono section can cause ticks and pops that sound for all the world as if they are on the surface of the LP. If you have a phono section that takes the electrical resonance that is always at the input of a phono section into account, many of the ticks and pops vanish, causing the LP to rival digital in background silence.
Most 'midfi' equipment designers simply ignored that resonance (its caused by the inductance of the cartridge in parallel with the capacitance of the tonearm cable; when that peak is activated by the energy of the cartridge, it overloads the input of the phono section briefly); as a result we have an entire generation of audiophiles that think ticks and pops are an epidemic on LP. Its just poor design.
In my book, 'midfi' is audio gear that is inexpensive and primarily meant to make money. 'High end audio' on the other hand is driven entirely by intention (and not price, although much of it is expensive). An example of an inexpensive high end audio product was Radio Shack's Pro LX5 loudspeaker, which IIRC sold for about $250.00/pair. Tandy bought out Linaeum just so they could use that tweeter- that's what I mean about intention- its not price. A newer example of intention driving the production of a high end product are the Topping DACs. They are relatively inexpensive but offer pretty impressive performance (and sound) even when compared to DACs costing $$$$s more.
Technics came out with their SL1200G turntable (which looks like their old SL1200s, but is an entirely new design). It gives excellent performance for considerably less than $10,000.00. Its a high end product. Technics management includes audiophiles.
So while 'midfi' does have a derogatory quality, what you want to look at is the intention behind the product. Does it exist simply to make money, or was it created by people who love music and enjoy what they are doing? This by the way, drives excellent quality no matter what the field. You're far better off going to an attorney that enjoys helping people and working with the law and logic than one that is simply doing it for the money. You have to pay them either way but one will be a lot more competent than the other.
