HiFi vs MidFi

Even retailers realize there’s a difference, look at Best Buy for example… 

Mid Fi product is on the shelves for anyone to pick up and bring to the register in their audio portion of the store, displays usually covered in finger smears, not hooked up to anything, many times missing knobs, etc., and to some people that is their Hi-Fi.

What Best Buy considers Hi-Fi is located in their Magnolia Section…. not much help there either or hooked up but certainly better grade product than what’s in their so called audio department.

My opinion as well is, Mid-Fi product you can grab off the shelf, no real technical assistance provided other than asking you if you’d like to take out the store’s credit card, etc., and to some people, yes it’s their Hi-Fi.  Heck, I know people who think because they dropped $1500.00 on a Bose set up that they’re in heaven… Hey good for them.
Myself, I prefer steak over hamburger. I’ve heard those systems at friends and relative’s homes and while there enjoyed them as well while hearing them brag about their set ups. It’s kinda of like going to Olive Garden and expecting Italian food like your going to be served at true family owed Italian restaurant in Milan. Can Mid-Fi work?… Yes and we’re all guilty of once in a while grabbing a fast food burger. 

Hi-Fi to me is product not mass marketed where product design is not affected by how it’s sale will affect the company’s stock price, where decisions on product design are not made in the board room, it’s more about the passion of the company’s owners and employees. Maybe they only produce few hundred units a year, quality over quantity, where I could call and the owner’s themselves could possibly answer the phone and answer my technical  inquires, where I’d get immediate replies to emails, etc.

Hi-fi is more than just the sound, it’s the company’s who’s product you’ve purchased vetted their dealers, and not just created a step up line of products jammed with options and crazy displays to create a one size fits all type of product.  Hi-Fi owners usually have higher expectations with specific goals in mind that can only be obtained with higher grade equipment and supported with more technically knowledgeable sales and support staffs with similar mindsets and not an inexperienced customer service agent reading off cue card scripts. 

I have numerous set ups in various rooms and consider parts of my systems Mid Fi and other parts of my system Hi-Fi. There is a difference but enjoy them all.  
I just wish the hard core guys on this site would provide more guidance in this hobby with their experience of higher grade products to the Mid Fi’ers who now would like to move up to Hi-Fi rather than see it as an opportunity to tell people their set ups are crap. You have to walk before you can run, you have find what you like and build from there. Growth is best achieved if mentored and keep in mind, most manufacturers believe due to technology taking it’s toll on this industry, component audio is a dying market, so by scaring away newbies rather than encouraging it’s growth hurts us all who enjoy this hobby in the long run. 

Seems the consensus is big audio budget does not equate to **far superior* sound.
Got it. But we all have to at least admist,
there are
*Nuances* to gain in one component vs another. Although I did state all tube amps pretty much sound the same, well I said **pretty much** I never said equal.
Some tube amps voice ever so slightly dif from the next.
My Shanling CD300 was indeed a nuance superior to my cayin CD player,, The Jadis DAC with Mundorf caps and high tgech Class A JFET opamps/Tele AU’s, is a nuance superior to the Shanling.
Point is
I could be very well happy witha 1960;s Dynaco ST70 stock original caps (no botique Mundorf caps) vs my Jadis Defy7/Mundorf/Takman resistos/Teles, as the 2 sounded pretty much the same in my
..here’s the clinger..
’classiacl music.
As we all know classical muisc engineers were hit and miss, Sure some DG engineers had great success, Some Philips/EMI and most other labels have issues in the recording quality.
The one musical genre where I do feel, if you can afford Jadis’ line, is in jazz music.
Jazz recordings will pick up the nuances quite well.
But for classical , nah, it makes no sense spending big cash on hi fidelity components.
I did say *high fidelity* , nuances all add up.
When you pilea bunch of nuances all together in one big pile,, now you really got something going,, For jazz.
In classical, really a Sony CD player, Dynaco ST70 1960s/stock caps BUT with Teles,, and a hifi WBer,, now thats as about all the hifi you are going to get.
But IF I can afford the Jadis CD player at $12K,,yeah I’m going to get it. Is it 12K better than the Sony in classical music,, most likely just a nuance, nada mas.
I could be wrong as I’ve not tested a Sony vs Jadis’ 12K player.
Just know I had bought ( My Cayin was having Mundorf caps installed, need a temmp player) a used Yamaha 6 cd player with the rotating plate thing and was surprised it sound **almost** as good as the Cayin CD17 with some Mundorf Caps.
Its the chase of high price speakers that puzzels me most.
Most have issues and this disqualifies them for being taged *High Fidelity*.

Here are the following amps I heard that brought me to the conclusion all tube amps sound **pretty much** the same
Dynaco ST70 modded
SET DIY with Colbalt trans/ uses a 50 tube
Allen Organ amps with KT120;s
Cayin 35 amp , the lillte guy with EL34’s($800)
Jadis Defy7.

Any of these amplifiers would work just fine in my classical **NOT hifi* recordings.
If we are considering jazz,  again,, any one would work just fine.
Its the speakers that make jazz music either 
 hifi,
 mid fi
low fi,
or just plain muddy/colored/fatiguing. 

@mozartfan
I concur. Classical is not drastically improved by hi-fi as some other genres. I am not a jazz afficionado so I have to few records of the genre to really speak of that. BUT, I do love any kind of prog music, alt-prog, prog rock, prog metal and with hundreds of records in the genre, there is no doubt that hi-fi can be a huge plus for it. For electronic music too. Long live diversity :)

Mindset of the both buyer and manufacturer are at the heart of the matter. 

Hifi usually has most of the energy focused on the best sound quality at the price point at the expense of fancy looks and bells & whistle features. Marketing by small companies often started in garages/basements is often an afterthought or minimal. Customers who identify as early adopters are attracted, and yes some go too far pushing snobbery and "insider knowledge" vibes that alienate others who are "hifi-curious".

Big Midfi brands marketing budgets contribute to their cost. Casual recognition of those brands by non-enthusiasts and big box distribution helps close the deal with the low-engagement customer. Manufs. compensate partially with large scale savings, but design decisions driven by committee, often result in sonic tradeoffs.   

IMHO, price contributes but isn't the key. Their are tons of lower cost items designed and sold with noble sonic goals and achievement; DIY and kits included! At the more limited end of the financial spectrum themes of "punching above their weight class" and "diminishing returns" are common and relevant. 

Years ago, I sold Sony, Bose and Onkyo at retail to pay for college. Many low engagement customers were happy. Then I went home and listened to music on my ugly green NAD amp and my tiny Mission monitors with grills removed and blu-tacked to cinderblock stands...and I was happy. 
Cheers,

Spencer