HiFi vs MidFi

MidFi is just code for the lower end of HiFi. Hardly anyone uses it any more since it came to be regarded as a sort of mild put down when all it really means is budget. But everyone is on a budget, just different amounts, so it never really made any sense no matter how you look at it.  

If you read a book like Robert Harley's The Complete Guide to High End Audio (highly recommended) you will learn that what really differentiates the High End from other home electronics is nothing to do with price or exclusivity or anything like that. The key to being High End is the whole focus of High End audio is sound quality. Not features, not looks, sound quality. Making music sound so good you want to stop everything and sit down and enjoy just listening to the music.    

This is High End audio. Yes there definitely are huge differences in sound quality and yes the very best does cost more. But that doesn't mean you can't build a really impressively satisfying music system on a modest budget. I have done it. Lots of us have. I wouldn't think to call the $1200 systems I made mid-fi.    

To be honest, the term HiFi isn't always all that complimentary. There are people who like the HiFi sound, and they will spend a fortune on their Mark Levinson, Wilson, etc and maybe even be happy. That should never stop you from thoroughly enjoying whatever it is you thoroughly enjoy, whether someone calls it LoFi, MidFi, HiFi, or NoFi.   

So if you hear those terms just take it as this is their way of telling you how good they think it is relative to other stuff. This is all relative anyway so don't try and read too much into it.

Acoustic could make every relatively good system Hi-Fi... Or almost....Whatever the price....

The reverse is true.... High cost system badly embedded especially acoustically may sound if not bad not at all at their potential peak...


Mid-Fi is a qualification motivated by gear sellers not acoustician....

 And yes millercarbon is right :

This is High End audio. Yes there definitely are huge differences in sound quality and yes the very best does cost more. But that doesn't mean you can't build a really impressively satisfying music system on a modest budget. I have done it. Lots of us have. I wouldn't think to call the $1200 systems I made mid-fi.    

Lol freediver got it 100% right and dropped the mic on his way out….

mid fi as a term is derogatory, for sure

but i have perhaps unwelcome news for those who think the law of diminishing returns kicks in at a grand, you are very very very wrong

if people know what they are doing, and have a workable room, immediately noticeable, better sounding systems result from more $ spent, well into 5 and 6 figures

you don’t need golden ears, just functional normal hearing and a decent appreciation for music

There is always better system...

The problem is not about the best system.... It is easy to buy one with the money...

The problem is how did i create one which is nearer than someone could think to the best system in the world at no cost....

It is not a question about diminishing returns...

It is a question about acoustic embeddings controls... Not merely passive treatment....active controls...

50% of the positive or negative S.Q. of a system come with the acoustic control or his lack of ...

But people are mentally programmed by the engineering industry not by acoustician....

Saying that higher cost can afford truly better S.Q. is common place fact and trivial.... What is less trivial and less common place is knowing how much acoustic can optimize and contribute to the S.Q. of ANY system ....

My system value is under 500 bucks all in all...

I listen to a million bucks system in a video on youtube and even through my system i can decipher why it was so bad because lacking acoustical control.... Incredible... But put a million bucks system sometimes in a bad room with no visible acoustic control and it could be atrociously fatiguing and repulsive even through my no fatiguing system....

I also listened to an asian owner with a million bucks system which was like a refined audio musical heaven.... Thanks to his marvellous visible acoustic control contributing for at least 50 % i am sure of that....His system for sure was audibly better than mine and more refined...But wai mine cost 500 bucks versus one million bucks...I think that this asian guy will stumble from his chair listening mine...Way less good than his but wait.....Not bad for 500 bucks....😊 I will not be surprized myself at all listening his better one....He will be surprized listening a lesser one....This is not diminushing return law it is acoustic laws...

I live very well with my under 500 bucks system acoustically well controlled...i smile if i listen anything better...You know why?

Mine is not so much behind at a cost near zero....

Then between all system there exist difference in quality , it is not debatable... It is a common place... But thinking that upgrading a piece of gear to a costly one give an Hi-FI experience is pure ignorance of at least acoustic....

By the way my acoustic treatment and active devices cost me nothing....