Mid-fi are the days before the apple was given to Eve and Adam by the serpent.
You can't go back before the Fall, @rvpiano , but you can pray for redemption. (And drink a beer.)
The joys of mid-fi
What I’m writing about here applies to classical music but might have parallels in other music too. I’ve brought this topiic up in different ways before.
Years ago when I was blissfully ensconced in mif-fi, I could easily compare different performances of the same classical work with the confidence that the sound quality would be essentially the same. There would be no issues of soundstaging, detail, et al that would make it hard for me to compare. It was easy to judge a performance on its own merits without complicating factors. Now, it’s almost impossible to assess a performance without placing SQ into the mix. A mediocre recording might be extremely attractive due the sound alone, Conversely, a very good performance might be shunted aside as “unlistenable.”
Oh, for the good old days of mid-fi! 😁