What is Lo-fi, Mid-fi and Hi-fi?

[michaelhigh]

Lo-fi- Cavemen banging on logs, Mid-fi- McIntosh, Klipsch and super-expensive analog and digital front end, Hi-Fi- extreme hi-end audio implants.

[dtel]

Hi-Fi- extreme hi-end audio implants

Wow they make them that also play music, and I thought implants were all for looks.

I don't know how they feel so I went with just looks ?

[quadklipsh]

IRONSAVE

you did me a ditto , havent you, dude[]

so the concept is the same .

[IB Slammin]

" there is no such thing as Hi Fidelity, it has fidelity or it does not" PWK

tc

[garyrc]

I get what PWK meant --surley in marriage we speak of fidelity or infidelity, with no degrees inbetween, BUT in audio, unlike in marriage, there is never perfect fidelity, but just relative faithfulness, so a rank order might be called for.

PWK (a pilot) was a little funnier when talking about flying, e.g., "You can't 'land' a plane on water, pontoons or not."

[IB Slammin]

I get what PWK meant --surley in marriage we speak of fidelity or infidelity, with no degrees inbetween, BUT in audio, unlike in marriage, there is never perfect fidelity, but just relative faithfulness, so a rank order might be called for.

PWK (a pilot) was a little funnier when talking about flying, e.g., "You can't 'land' a plane on water, pontoons or not."

Yea, I agree. I picture PWK saying that to someone like Mr. Bose...... just before he flashed the[bs] button.

tc

[gnatnoop]

hifi = khorns at 100db

midfi = have to turn it down

lofi = off

[thebes]

I do believe these terms were actually an out growth of a earl-1970's fashion magazine article. I'm, pretty sure Lo-fi had something to do with a Boom Box carried by a white boy wearing a Nehru jacket. Mid Fi, was a Boom Box carried by a 'bro with a middlin sized Afro, and Hi Fi, two Boom Boxes carried by a hot pair of Salt & Pepper sisters.

[Islander]

" there is no such thing as Hi Fidelity, it has fidelity or it does not" PWK

Technically, he's correct, just as one round figure can't be more circular than another; it's a circle or it's not.


Non-technically, I like this one:

HI-FI: My most recent equipment purchase.

MID-FI: The equipment that is being replaced by my most recent purchase.

LO-FI: My neighbor's most recent equipment purchase.


And this one:

Low-fi is what most people who aren't audiophiles have.

Hi-fi is what audiophiles usually have.

Mid-fi is what some rich audiophiles say most other audiophiles have.

[russ69]

I'm, pretty sure Lo-fi had something to do with a Boom Box carried by a white boy wearing a Nehru jacket.

I'm pretty sure you were brain damaged some time in in the 60s, lol. Boom boxes and Nehru jackets don't go together. Nehru jackets were the 60s. Boom boxes came much later. I'm sure you would have remembered if you had not turned on, tuned in and dropped out!

[garyrc]

I'm, pretty sure Lo-fi had something to do with a Boom Box carried by a white boy wearing a Nehru jacket.

I'm pretty sure you were brain damaged some time in in the 60s, lol. Boom boxes and Nehru jackets don't go together. Nehru jackets were the 60s. Boom boxes came much later. I'm sure you would have remembered if you had not turned on, tuned in and dropped out!

Yes, your chronology is correct. When Nehru jackets were popular the only kind of audio devices people carried around on the street were horrible transistor radios, and the occasional, bulkier, high distortion tape recorders (e.g., the ones used to record class lectures). The distortion was so high that we audiophiles called them "hash boxes." No, not that kind of hash.