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What is Mid-Fi?

3125b

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Many people seem to base their classification on price, but that doesn't make sense as we've been shown here many times.
Basing the terms on performance does make sense, but there is no consensus about where to draw the lines for each category.
 

pjug

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Many people seem to base their classification on price, but that doesn't make sense as we've been shown here many times.
Basing the terms on performance does make sense, but there is no consensus about where to draw the lines for each category.
Basing on price makes sense if the Fi is for financial hit.
 
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diddley

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So when it's purely price related it is subjective as hell.
Thanks for the answers, it is clearly witch direction the thinking goes.
No for myself to figure out if i got a high or mid-fi system.
As long as it doesn't mean that longevity is at steak here.
 

FrantzM

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A condescending concept from the High End section for many products which at the end perform better objectively than several, if not most so-called "High End" similar in function, audio products.
An example is an AVR such as the Denon X-3700 H compared to a High End Audio product such as a DHT triode SET amplifier ... name your price , the Denon has better, verifiable, measurable, specs ..
Or the Apple dongle ($9.oo) compared to the Total crap ($ 15,000.oo, NO TYPO) . Both were reviewed by Amir...

Peace.
 

FrantzM

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Audio components available in a big box store.
It depends. At one point darlings of High End Audio such as Krell and Martin Logan were available at Best Buy.
Price mostly but not entirely. High End people would have not hesitate qualifying something like the Storm Audio or Trinnov Prepros as”midfi” …
The amount of bovine manure from High End audio and its press is Himalayan.

Peace.
 

Robin L

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"Mid-Fi" is a High End pejorative for gear they wouldn't consider on account of ubiquity.
 

JJB70

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Mid-fi is that layer which exists between most normal people would react with "how ****** much?" when looking at stuff and at which hobby snobs sneer at for not being expensive or exclusive enough. It's the same in most hobbies and interests.
 

Putter

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I've never actually seen a satisfying answer. While audiophiles insist that it's not a demeaning term, they always leave the impression that you didn't spend enough and that you might rise above that level with their help, a boatload of of money and some 'system matching.'

IMO it may be the single biggest obstacle to the acceptance of high fidelity by the masses.
 

Chrispy

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I've never actually seen a satisfying answer. While audiophiles insist that it's not a demeaning term, they always leave the impression that you didn't spend enough and that you might rise above that level with their help, a boatload of of money and some 'system matching.'

IMO it may be the single biggest obstacle to the acceptance of high fidelity by the masses.
What does it actually have to do with high fidelity, tho? These are the same guys with idiotic cables, power conditioners, power cords and interconnects and speaker cables commenting with such a dig usually.
 
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mhardy6647

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Pejorative term form something that is not expensive oder exclusive enough to be a real Hi-Fi.
A condescending concept from the High End section for many products which at the end perform better objectively than several, if not most so-called "High End" similar in function, audio products...

I concur (FWIW), by and large, with this laconic assesssment. :) Mid-Fi is one of those code words used (mostly) by elitists to dismiss the efforts of the great unwashed to enjoy "hifi" with, e.g., multi-way "Kabuki" (another loaded term ;)) loudspeakers, garish 1970s "silver-faced" stereo receivers, and... well, Lord knows what source components. I am sure there are modern analogies, too. Maybe, in this context "Chi-Fi" (a term which I find abhorrent given the implicit xenophobia that, from my perspective, lurks just behind it) is synonymous with "mid-fi" to such folks.

The bar for mid-fi can vary greatly. I saw a post here on ASR yesterday that commented of a $2000 USD NAD amp: "it's almost cheap enough to be disposable"*. Boy howdy, that person has way more disposable income than do I!

Alternatively, "mid-fi" also been embraced as a badge of honor by the anti-elitists.
They're just as bad, and again, from my perspective, as the brocade smoking jacket brigade I invoke in the first paragraph above!

:)

_________________________
* EDIT Full disclosure, here's the exact quote, slightly edited due to a bizarre misspelling of a slang term in the original. I won't hare the ID of the poster nor the thread, but only because I don't know the person well enough to be certain that the intent wasn't sarcastic. It didn't seem to be, though. :confused:

... is just a [little bit] above throwaway cost.
 
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