When are speakers considered Hi-Fi and not Mid-Fi???

My personal definition of when you’ve crossed over from Mid-Fi to Hi-Fi is that your favorite sample tracks you used previously for demoing electronics because they had “good bass” or “tinkling bells” or an impressive “drum hit” or a “powdery woman’s voice” no longer sound so impressive, and may sound downright dull on your system, while other tracks with dramatic contrast in tempo and loudness, interesting or complicated spatial cues, or fantastic pace, rhythm and timing now grab your attention.  YMMV

kn

There is no room for interpretation here...😊

"distortion" is not an acoustic problem first but result from the electronical designof components...

Then as i said, "high fidelity" is not a basic acoustical concept mainly , but a concept related to optimal or not so optimal electronical design... This concept is born with the electronical industry linked to sound reproduction and engineering standards...

Timbre perception and soundfield immersiveness (ASW/LV) conditions are basic problems in acoustic and psycho-acoustic to be adress, ONCE the electronical design noise and distortion is under control and good to begin with...

And even Magnepan can deliver an inferior experience if we listen to it in a non adapted living room...I know that first hand ...My Tannoy dual gold which were potentially way better than my Mission Cyrus design were inferior as the Magnepan superior design was too ,compared to the low price Mission Cyrus IN A DEDICATED FOR IT ROOM...The magnepan and the Tannoy, Alas! were experience in living room and not in a dedicated room... This why my low cost Mission beat them...The relation speakers/room is more important for audiophile experience than just the speakers design blueprint so better it is ...

Then the best audiophile experience is determined by acoustic experience and knowledge not by price tag of electronic components and not even by superior design ... Saying that costlier design is better is not false, it is worst than that, it is an HALF TRUTH... it is consumers marketing conditioning... Not acoustic science nor my experience ....

My perspective is not popular with people owning very costly system...😊 They think that i devaluate their really better design, I did not, I never claimed that low cost gear can replace very costlier superior design, no more than my inferior Mission can replace my Tannoy or Magnepan, i claim that we must if we want to judge a system potential we must listen to it in a dedicated room or at least in a very well treated and acoustically good living room...

Then the room /speakers relation is the KEY... Not the price of a dac, especially nowadays that many dac are really good even at low price... The differential decisive factor to real audiophile experience is acoustic room treatment and mechanical control or virtual room acoustic as with Dr. Choueri BACCH filters...... If people think that in spite of their real perceived differences it is vinyl versus analog, or digital versus turntable or the amplifier price or the speakers price by themselves ALONE ,they delude themselves.....And the marketing of audio want deluded consumers  walking all over the place and upgrading without end searching out of acoustic which only acoustic can give... But it is not a good news: we must learn and work , there is no "buy and ready to plug" audiophile top experience ...

the Dictionary.com definition of High-Fidelity is:

noun Electronics.

1. sound reproduction over the full range of audible frequencies with very little distortion of the original signal.

That leaves quite a bit of room for interpretation.

Well, IMHO, if you're worried about labels, you're worried about the wrong thing. If the sound from your system is music to your ears, what difference does labeling the equipment make? None.  And irrespective of what other listeners may opine (be they plebe, rube, or Audiophilus Rex) your own preference in sound is simply unassailable in your listening room. Forget the hogwash and get what you like!

Mid-fi, as others have so noted, seems like a marketing term, rather than a term having any use in characterizing quality differential. I never heard of it until now.

Never understood where the midfi term came from? But to answer,  if your speakers are above $100,000 for the audio gurus.  

From the midfi champ.