High fidelity (often shortened tohi-fi or, rarely,HiFi) is the high-qualityreproduction of sound.^[1] It is popular withaudiophiles andhome audio enthusiasts. Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudiblenoise anddistortion, and a flat (neutral, uncolored)frequency response within thehuman hearing range.^[2]

High fidelity contrasts with the lower-quality "lo-fi" sound produced by inexpensive audio equipment,AM radio, or the inferior quality of sound reproduction that can be heard in recordings made until the late 1940s.

Bell Laboratories began experimenting with various recording techniques in the early 1930s. Performances byLeopold Stokowski and thePhiladelphia Orchestra were recorded in 1931 and 1932 using telephone lines between theAcademy of Music in Philadelphia and the Bell labs in New Jersey. Somemultitrack recordings were made on optical sound film, which led to new advances used primarily byMGM (as early as 1937) andTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (as early as 1941).RCA Victor began recording performances by several orchestras using optical sound around 1941, resulting in higher-fidelity masters for78-rpm discs. During the 1930s,Avery Fisher, an amateur violinist, began experimenting with audio design andacoustics. He wanted to make a radio that would sound like he was listening to a live orchestra and achieve high fidelity to the original sound. AfterWorld War II,Harry F. Olson conducted an experiment whereby test subjects listened to a live orchestra through a hidden variable acoustic filter. The results proved that listeners preferred high-fidelity reproduction, once the noise and distortion introduced by early sound equipment was removed.^{[citation needed]}

Beginning in 1948, several innovations created the conditions that made major improvements in home audio quality possible:

• Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, based on technology taken from Germany after WWII, helped musical artists such asBing Crosby make and distribute recordings with better fidelity.
• The advent of the 33⅓ rpmlong play (LP) microgroovevinyl record, with lowersurface noise and quantitatively specifiedequalization curves as well as noise-reduction and dynamic range systems.Classical music fans, who wereopinion leaders in the audio market, quickly adopted LPs because, unlike with older records, most classical works would fit on a single LP.
• Higher qualityturntables, with more responsiveneedles
• FM radio, with wider audio bandwidth and less susceptibility to signal interference and fading thanAM radio.
• Betteramplifier designs, with more attention to frequency response and much higher power output capability, reproducing audio without perceptibledistortion.^[3]
• Newloudspeaker designs, includingacoustic suspension, developed byEdgar Villchur andHenry Kloss with improved bass frequency response.

In the 1950s, audio manufacturers employed the phrasehigh fidelity as a marketing term to describe records and equipment intended to provide faithful sound reproduction. Many consumers found the difference in quality compared to the then-standard AM radios and 78-rpm records readily apparent and bought high-fidelity phonographs and 33⅓ LPs such asRCA's New Orthophonics and London's FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording, a UKDecca system).Audiophiles focused on technical characteristics and bought individual components, such as separate turntables, radio tuners,preamplifiers,power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Some enthusiasts even assembled their loudspeaker systems, with the advent of integrated multi-speaker console systems in the 1950s,hi-fi became a generic term for home sound equipment, to some extent displacingphonograph andrecord player.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the development ofstereophonic equipment and recordings led to the next wave of home-audio improvement, and in common parlancestereo displacedhi-fi. Records were now played ona stereo (stereophonic phonograph). In the world of the audiophile, however, the concept ofhigh fidelity continued to refer to the goal of highly accurate sound reproduction and to the technological resources available for approaching that goal. This period is regarded as the "Golden Age of Hi-Fi", whenvacuum tube equipment manufacturers of the time produced many models considered superior by modern audiophiles, and just beforesolid state (transistorized) equipment was introduced to the market, subsequently replacing tube equipment as the mainstream technology.

In the 1960s, theFTC with the help of the audio manufacturers came up with a definition to identify high-fidelity equipment so that the manufacturers could clearly state if they meet the requirements and reduce misleading advertisements.^[4]

A popular type of system for reproducing music beginning in the 1970s was the integratedmusic centre—which combined a phonograph turntable, AM-FM radio tuner, tape player, preamplifier, and power amplifier in one package, often sold with its own separate, detachable or integrated speakers. These systems advertised their simplicity. The consumer did not have to select and assemble individual components or be familiar with impedance and power ratings. Purists generally avoid referring to these systems as high fidelity, though some are capable of very good quality sound reproduction.

Audiophiles in the 1970s and 1980s preferred to buy each component separately. That way, they could choose models of each component with the specifications that they desired. In the 1980s, several audiophile magazines became available, offering reviews of components and articles on how to choose and test speakers, amplifiers, and other components.

Listening tests are used by hi-fi manufacturers, audiophile magazines, andaudio engineering researchers and scientists. If a listening test is done in such a way that the listener who is assessing the sound quality of a component or recording can see the components that are being used for the test (e.g., the same musical piece listened to through a tube power amplifier and a solid-state amplifier), then it is possible that the listener's pre-existing biases towards or against certain components or brands could affect their judgment. To respond to this issue, researchers began to useblind tests, in which listeners cannot see the components being tested. A commonly used variant of this test is theABX test. A subject is presented with two known samples (sampleA, the reference, and sampleB, an alternative), and one unknown sampleX, for three samples total.X is randomly selected fromA andB, and the subject identifiesX as being eitherA orB. Although there is no way to prove that a certain methodology istransparent,^[5] a properly conducted double-blind test can prove that a method isnot transparent.

Blind tests are sometimes used as part of attempts to ascertain whether certain audio components (such as expensive, exotic cables) have any subjectively perceivable effect on sound quality. Data gleaned from these blind tests is not accepted by some audiophile magazines such asStereophile andThe Absolute Sound in their evaluations of audio equipment.John Atkinson, current editor ofStereophile, stated that he once purchased a solid-state amplifier, the Quad 405, in 1978 after seeing the results from blind tests, but came to realize months later that "the magic was gone" until he replaced it with a tube amp.^[6] Robert Harley ofThe Absolute Sound wrote, in 2008, that: "...blind listening tests fundamentally distort the listening process and are worthless in determining the audibility of a certain phenomenon."^[7]

Doug Schneider, editor of the online Soundstage network, argued the opposite in 2009.^[8][9] He stated: "Blind tests are at the core of the decades' worth of research into loudspeaker design done atCanada's National Research Council (NRC). The NRC researchers knew that for their result to be credible within the scientific community and to have the most meaningful results, they had to eliminate bias, and blind testing was the only way to do so." Many Canadian companies such as Axiom, Energy, Mirage, Paradigm, PSB, and Revel use blind testing extensively in designing their loudspeakers. Audio professional Dr. Sean Olive of Harman International shares this view.^[10]

Stereophonic sound provided a partial solution to the problem of reproducing the sound of live orchestral performers by creating separation among instruments, theillusion of space, and a phantom central channel. An attempt to enhance reverberation was tried in the 1970s throughquadraphonic sound. Consumers did not want to pay the additional costs and space required for the marginal improvements in realism. With the rise in popularity ofhome theater, however, multi-channel playback systems became popular, and many consumers were willing to tolerate the six to eight channels required in a home theater.

In addition to spatial realism, the playback of music must be subjectively free from noise, such as hiss or hum, to achieve realism. Thecompact disc (CD) provides about 90decibels ofdynamic range,^[11] which exceeds the 80 dB dynamic range of music as normally perceived in a concert hall.^[12] Audio equipment must be able to reproduce frequencies high enough and low enough to be realistic. The human hearing range, for healthy young persons, is 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz.^[13] Most adults can't hear higher than 15,000 Hz.^[11] CDs are capable of reproducing frequencies as low as 0 Hz and as high as 22,050 Hz, making them adequate for reproducing the frequency range that most humans can hear.^[11] The equipment must also provide no noticeable distortion of thesignal or emphasis or de-emphasis of any frequency in this frequency range.

Integrated,mini, orlifestyle systems (also known by the older termsmusic centre ormidi system^[14][15]) contain one or more sources such as aCD player, atuner, or acassette tape deck together with apreamplifier and apower amplifier in one box. A limitation of an "integrated" system is that failure of any one component can possibly lead to the need to replace the entire unit, as components are not readily swapped in or out of a system merely by plugging and unplugging cables, and may not even have been made available by the manufacturer to allow piecemeal repairs.

Although somehigh-end audio manufacturers do produce integrated systems, such products are generally disparaged byaudiophiles, who prefer to build a system fromseparates (orcomponents), often with each item from a different manufacturer specialising in a particular component. This provides the most flexibility for piece-by-pieceupgrades and repairs.

A preamplifier and a power amplifier in one box is called anintegrated amplifier; with a tuner added, it is areceiver. A monophonic power amplifier is called amonoblock and is often used for powering asubwoofer. Other modules in the system may include components likecartridges,tonearms, hi-fiturntables,digital media players,DVD players that play a wide variety of discs includingCDs,CD recorders,MiniDisc recorders, hi-fivideocassette recorders (VCRs) andreel-to-reel tape recorders. Signal modification equipment can includeequalizers andnoise-reduction systems.

This modularity allows the enthusiast to spend as little or as much as they want on a component to suit their specific needs, achieve a desired sound, and add components as desired. Also, failure of any component of an integrated system can render it unusable, while the unaffected components of a modular system may continue to function. A modular system introduces the complexity of cabling multiple components and often having differentremote controls for each unit.

Some modern hi-fi equipment can be digitally connected usingfiber opticTOSLINK cables,USB ports (including one to play digital audio files), orWi-Fi support.

Another modern component is themusic server consisting of one or morecomputerhard drives that hold music in the form ofcomputer files. When the music is stored in anaudio file format that islossless such asFLAC,Monkey's Audio orWMA Lossless, the computer playback of recorded audio can serve as an audiophile-quality source for a hi-fi system. There is now a push from certain streaming services to offer hi-fi services.

Streaming services typically have a modified dynamic range and possibly bit rates lower than audiophile standards.^{[citation needed]}Tidal and others have launched a hi-fi tier that includes access to FLAC andMaster Quality Authenticated studio masters for many tracks through the desktop version of the player. This integration is also available for high-end audio systems.

• Janet Borgerson; Jonathan Schroeder (2017).Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in Midcentury America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.ISBN 9780262036238.

• A Dictionary of Home Entertainment Terms