The term "High End" needs to die. Long live Hi-Fidelity!

Excellent post, thank you.

**** It is shrinking because we are making less communal investments in music appreciation and education. Thus, fewer people believe music is a worthwhile "investment" of their time or their money or both. The music is what matters and because fewer people value music, fewer people are attracted to pursuing "quality" audio equipment to faithfully reproduce the sound of music. ****

I have come to believe that the term “high end” is an accommodation to those who would spend extra money, time and effort to attain a sound that is appealing to them, where as the term “high fidelity” existed for the purists for whom the quest to accurately replay what’s encoded in the recording.

”Fidelity” narrows the potential market.

My username says it all!

HiFi is the aim of all Audiophiles I’ve always felt that we all want High Fidelity sound and that High End was a term we used to describe the equipment we needed to attain that sound. I don’t think high end equipment needs to break the bank, be esoteric or unobtainable; high end describes to me that it was designed with purpose and care to recreate music the best way the designer choose to.

A person can be passionate about high fidelity and not necessarily have the money to buy high end components. I was that person for many years with a buy it once, but it right attitude. I did not settle on one component in my set up and wouldn’t trade a piece for anything at this moment even though there is equipment and components at 10 times the cost. We should encourage anyone who is interested in better sound reproduction. . . 

HiFi all the way!

- Steve