Where does "MidFi" differ from "HiFi" or "LOFI"?

Its all subjective, if you run a you tube channel you will get blasted in the comments so I can see why Andrew set the bar as he did. 

the paradigm pw600 are on sale $600 a pair,sound like much,much more than a $2000 system

@ghdprentice , do you think it is possible to get the SQ of a system like you described (10K+ per component) from a headphone rig, put together properly??

Budget necessary?

@johnweiss , this is open to debate. In branding you have 3 classes, luxury, standard, and budget. I think you have identified the 3 classes in audio that correspond..

Generally these categories differ by SQ and supposedly by price. I think of budget as boom boxes, low quality headphones, speakers made of low quality plastic, etc.

I think of midfi as gear that sounds better than budget and is sometimes found in big box retailers such as receivers, CD players, and the type of speakers that sound good, but not as good as reference class speakers you would find in a store that specializes in audio equipment.

High end gear is made of high quality parts (hopefully), sounds less like a bad recording and more like what the engineer heard in the studio. Sometimes gear is priced accordingly and sometimes budget or midfi gear ends up sounding closer to the high end category. That is a NEW category often referred to as "giant killer". Most members here like "giant killers" when they can find it. See this thread for examples:

FYI- The Law of Diminishing returns in audio gear is a fact:

The other thing is the labels change very quickly, a "high end" dac from 5 years ago can often be thrashed by a more recent "midfi dac" from today. 

I like the term Thomas uses in this video about high end dacs vs the new affordable dacs that are, "good enough" which sums it up:

@audiotroy , what did you think of the video by Thomas?

One area where it is EASY to go from lowfi to hifi on a beer budget is treating your room. Stick high end components in a bad room and they instantly sound like midfi or worse. In a good room, whatever gear you have has the opportunity to perform at its best. So, in order to GET true hifi your room must be acoustically excellent or why bother?

@jasonbourne52 , I really liked that video too, i made me consider ordering an iFi dac out of curiosity. I have experienced the difference in going from a receiver to separates, huge benefit. I have experienced going from an untreated room with speakers adequately placed to being in a well treated room with speakers at the precise placement per dolby specs, huge upgrade. Power, cables, and source upgrades have been incremental. I know better performance is out there, the sad thing is no matter how much money you spend, it still isn’t a live performance and there is ALWAYS going to be better gear available in the future. Through exchanges on this forum I find many of the people who have achieved what they wanted did it through meticulous attention to every detail of their system, not necessarily an all out assault on high ticket items. The DIY experts here will likely blow away what is available in a lot of stores (see @phusis), but not many people have that same passion to build. Its funny because DIY and "high end" seem like at two ends of the spectrum.

There is another channel where the host reviews what I consider to be luxury items which is interesting as he compares a lot of the gear that is priced among the top 20% of the industry. If you watch this video use headphones:

@ghdprentice , that was a really interesting experience how your headphone system raised the bar. When I was considering adding a tube pre to my HT system I took your advice to keep systems that are different separate. You made a great call and all I did was improve the signal going into my processor (iFi SPDIF iPurifier, being fed by a Pangea toslink and Pangea ethernet cable). This was inexpensive, simple, but what it did was raise the performance of my multichannel/stereo listening on that system by reducing jitter and noise.

This is what led me to the headphone question I asked. Black Ice audio is releasing Jim Fosgate designed headphone amp this summer, its tube based, has a dac, and I think THIS is how I get a tube based system. Thanks for posting.
The title of this video is misleading, Jim goes into how he developed his new headphone amp here:

@ghdprentice , I pulled the trigger on a headphone amp/pre/dac by Sony Signature Series (their "high end" line). I can also use it as a DAC and/or as a preamp connected directly to my active speakers:

@dinov , reviewer Andrew Robinson put his personal classification based purely on price:

budget: under $1K

midfi- $1K to $3K

hi-end- over $3K

His product of the year for ALL categories in 2022 was the Polk R7 speaker, in the mid fi category. You don’t have to cost the most to be good.

I just bought a "high end" dac/preamp/headphone amp, Sony Signature at a midfi price, under $3K. Best of both worlds to my ears.

@fleschler 

Low-fi systems (under $1K) just have too many limitations.  (for you!)

I encourage you to check out the many active speaker/systems available below $1000.

For example:

https://www.soundstagesimplifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/217-svs-prime-wireless-pro-active-loudspeaker-system

@fleschler , take $1000 budget (low-fi) and try and replicate an active system like that, going old school, one component at a time. Inadequate at MSRP, yes.

You take an active system like SVS, Paradigm PW, etc. and you catapult right into "adequate" (office, bedroom, second system) mid-fi performance. 

You are an expert with high audio IQ and a custom built room, that is inadequate for you, yes. But to buy one component, meticulously engineered, plug and play, lowfi price, solid mid-fi performance = adequate for most people IMO.