What does "Sounds too Hifi" mean???


Lately I've been reading this phrase on various forums, and have no idea what they are talking about. What is the "hifi" sound? What does it mean when something "sounds too hifi"? Does that mean it doesn't dissappear, that you are aware that the music is being made by "equipment"? Is this term in the audio glossary?!!!
peter_s
Hifi music reproduction is artificial. Too hifi means the artifice is not well hidden.
I was under the impression that "Hifi" is a vestage of a GOOD descriptor, a complimentary term used in the past, if not the present. Since when did high fidelity come to mean something negative? (Perhaps I missed the backlash to the 80's during my "non-audiophile" period!).
To me too HiFi usually means that too much emphasis has been placed in creating a highly detailed (read bright & thin) upper midrange and highs to exaggerate the soundstaging effect at the expense of musicality. It could also be over/under emphasis in any part of the musical spectrum to appeal to certain listeners, which departs from a neutral presentation of the contents of the recordings.
"Sounds too Hifi" mean the system don't sound like the real thing at all.
Or it is a polite description that mean the system sounds like SHXX !!!
If a system "sounds too Hifi", it always remind you that you are listening to reproduce music.
HiFi has been a good thing. It is what all audio components aspire to. Quality of components has been rated as budget, mid-fi and hi-fi (high fidelity). Hi-Fi is what audiophiles would purchase because this is the equipment striving to be the best.

Now in the persuit of this holy grail, the highest resolution equipment can be a mix of hi-fi sound or like real music. Both are positve qualities in terms of sound reproduction, but obviously it's real music that's more desireable. Especially today, more and more components can sound like music.

Hi-Fi is a good thing, consider mid-fi and low-fi as inferior reproduction.
Now obviously there can be some musical qualities to even low-fi sound.