"...The term "hi-fi" — or "high fidelity" — dates back to the 1950s when it was used to describe audio equipment that was able to faithfully reproduce music..."
"...Hi-fi in 2021 really has to do with a philosophy rather than a set of stringent requirements. It’s instead a listener’s pursuit of the best playback quality, independent of the format (vinyl, digital) that the listener chooses..."
This is my definition. |
I'll riff on what mahgister says just above. Go to a restaurant, supermarket, or any place where people gather and do business. Use your audiophile ears and listen to the waiter/waitress as he/she takes an order. Listen to the interaction between the cashier and customer at the checkout stand. Listen to the shelf stocker as he/she puts cans and bottles on the shelves. Listen to the rattles, squeaks and bangs of the shopping carts as they're maneuvered around the store. Listen to the various ways people make the "S" sound. Listen to the differences in the timbres of male and female voices. Listen to a toddler babble and scream. Listen to the imaging. Listen to the background noise, whether it be muzak, street traffic or an air conditioner. Ah! The Absolute Sound! |
As Mordred proclaims in his song Seven Deadly Virtues in the musical Camelot, "Fidelity is only for your mate!" |
The human timbre voice is the golden rule in audio like in music...
We are shaped by our daily life, by history, and by evolution to detect, identify, and locate voices....
For me there is no other rule to fine tune acoustically my system...
We all know how a voice must be....Or is not.....Almost all music is distributed around the critical window frequencies range of the human voice.... If a choral work sound good in a stereo system with a location and a clear distribution of children,female and male voices with all the difference between the register, and the indivuduals, this system will give a good rendering of any instrument....
The worst music for fine tuning a system is any amplified instrument.....The worst genre is pop or electronica....
The best is choral voices with children,females and males voices...
For instrument i pick one very demanding but very well known : piano....
My second best is a brass quartet or quintet with tuba, trombone, horn and trumpet...
My third is Vivaldi strings.....
Or some symphonies....
If all that sound natural and 3- D you are done....
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It’s been said a thousand times and I agree, we all have different goals in our pursuit of a sound that we like and there really is no room for judgment of someone else’s goals. However, I think we kid ourselves sometimes and fall back on a type of relativism that is, let’s just say, self serving in order for things to align with our pereonal goals. The question is about the term “hi-fi” and its meaning. High fidelity. I don’t particularly like the term and some may consider the use of it quaint but if the term is to be used the question has to be asked: “fidelity to what?”; and on a “high” level at that. That is why this is my favorite quote from the article: **** Alex Munro, Brand Director at Q Acoustics "The original proposition and purpose of hi-fi has all but gone. That is except for a hard core among audio enthusiasts, who are still making tiny incremental changes to a component audio system seeking the ultimate sound, adopting higher and higher resolution replay sources. But only those of them who attend a lot of live unamplified music have kept touch with the original aims of hi-fi. **** First, there is plenty of live unamplified music out there and anyone who thinks otherwise is not looking very hard at all. Now, one may not like the genres represented by most live unamplified music, but that is a different story. Moreover, in order to be able to use that sound as a reference there is no getting around the fact that substantial exposure to that sound is the only way. For historical perspective remember that when the term “hi-fi” came to be the vast majority of music was, in fact, live and unamplified. I don’t think that acknowledging the true definition of the term is elitist at all and the term is still relevant for some. Pursuit of sound that is “best” and more to one’s liking without the use of the live/acoustic reference is perfectly valid on a personal basis, but if that is the goal I don’t think “hi-fi” is the term to use. |
@mapman
i missed your pointing out the article first time around, read it now, like it alot... i think it is terrific the journalist interviewed many important industry participants, and by and large i thought their comments were fair and accurate, reflected a great understanding of both the history of hifi and the current marketplace
reality is that unamplified music performances are fairly rare for most music listeners in this age, save for classical and some jazz, so it makes sense that the industry evolves into various versions of ’vivid portrayal’ of manufactured music that is recorded on multi track then mixed in studio...
i have been a big fan of bbc monitors since the outset, and how they strived to reproduce live musical events that the bbc back then would broadcast or record for viewers/listeners... needless to say, that particular objective makes certain tradeoffs to reproducing midband accuracy and rolling off the extremes to capture the ’hall effects’ of live symphonic music heard 'in hall' - of course this standard of reproduction is now obsolete to many... is this good or bad, i don't know... but it good to hear this sort of music even if rarely... it is useful in establishing a reference for clarity, attack with lack of edge, depth and scale of sound |
Just throwing the question out there again. |
"Good luck finding unamplified music.
Even the buskers have battery smpsy." Piano can do. That is how I know that my system is not Hi-Fi. |
The original goal of hifi was to reproduce live music as best as possible so holy snowflake Batman don’t get your cowl in a tizzy. 🎭 You can have whatever goal you please. It’s a free country. At least when it comes to hifi. The hifi police are not out to get you. Stating facts is a best practice for all......nothing elite about it. Some may just do it better than others. Time for a chill pill. 💊. That or perhaps lay off the weed a bit it can make one paranoid you know. |
only those of them who attend a lot of live unamplified music have kept touch with the original aims of hi-fi. Good golly gosh. So I can't be hi-fi, because I haven't attended a live acoustic music event in years? Holy elitist, Batman! Where do they get these ideas? Yes Robin, but the arrogance of some people knows no bounds. |
It's means what it's always meant. The McIntosh guy got it about right. |
Hey. I just like switching on the steereo, sitting in my easy chair, and listening to a few tunes. In the best audio fidelity I can reasonably muster. |
Good luck finding unamplified music.
Even the buskers have battery smpsy. |
Addresses in no way?
I’d argue it addresses 80-90%. Maybe more. |
High Fidelity - the movie! John Cusack, et al ... |
Interesting article Thanks...
Interesting article which adress in NO way at all the Audio problem directly....
I am flabbergasted by the imperative of market consumerism on audiophile....
And all these men sells something.... Except the solutions....
The history and evolution of tech and sources are interesting for sure...
But the definition of what is Hi-Fi is not linked to only and mainly to the gear, but mainly to the way we install it in his working dimensions whatever it is ....
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@mapman Good read thanks. |
I was more down with Louis Dorio myself:
"Hi-fi in 2021 really has to do with a philosophy rather than a set of stringent requirements. It’s instead a listener’s pursuit of the best playback quality, independent of the format (vinyl, digital) that the listener chooses. Hi-fi often gets thrown around as a marketing term — a way to try to get music lovers to buy products — but it’s not necessarily always about that."
Also I found the reply from the CEO of McIntosh to be almost incomprehensible.
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Yes I thought that comment was spot on too. I feel like I pass that test. I recall what got me into this stuff back in the "early days of hifi" as a kid and try not to get sidetracked. But of course to each their own. It’s all good fun and entertainment.
I still like the term hi-fi and use it all the time. Still says it all. Except the fidelity these days is not just higher than ever but easier to obtain for more. |
@mapman,
Thanks for sharing the article. IMO, Alex Munro is spot on with current state of HiFi,
"The original proposition and purpose of hi-fi has all but gone. That is except for a hard core among audio enthusiasts, who are still making tiny incremental changes to a component audio system seeking the ultimate sound, adopting higher and higher resolution replay sources. But only those of them who attend a lot of live unamplified music have kept touch with the original aims of hi-fi.”
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