HiFi vs MidFi

I like the way the movie "It Might Get Loud" sums it up as 3 great musicians are discussing "best" guitar.  Jimmy Page and The Edge both had some great high end desires.  Jack White just humbly said, "I like to take a piece of sh*t and see how good I can make it sound".  Or, something to that effect.  For example, I have all different costs but wanted to see how cheap I could go for a great sound.  I used a Dayton audio class D integrated, with some inexpensive Dayton Audio full range speakers that I use in a transmission line speaker configuration made from PVC plumbing.  For what I spent on this true lowfi, the sound is really darn good.  It does have some limitations, such as the listening area is small, don't move outside of it or quality drops quickly.  I found the frequency response was below that of my JBL 4312's.  Let your ears be the guide and it is amazing what you can come up with. 

Very true about control of room acoustics. However, all else being equal in that dimension:

Helped a friend, who had been without home hi-fi for decades, set up a new system for a smallish listening space. $1100 Cambridge streamer/DAC/digital preamp, no TT, no analog preamp, no CD player, no tape deck, Schiit Vidar power amp, great deal at $700, Martin-Logan 60 series tower speakers, high efficiency, equally great deal at $1,000 closeout with dual 8" subwoofers for each channel. Having plenty of surplus quality speaker cables and interconnects, I gifted him those.

So we get him set up and he plays Spotify from the Cambridge straight into the Vidar. His family's ears perked up. Never heard reproduced sound like that. Daughter brought her friends over to listen. Wife in kitchen asked for more volume. Clearly hi-fi TO THEM.

Well, not to me, and not to 99% of contributors here. Pleasant? Sure. But exchange it for an Aurender streamer, a $1,500+ outboard DAC, play Qobuz not Spotify, add $900 Schiit tube preamp or just 6SN7 tube buffer, add bass array or just upgrade to Legacy towers with 10" or 12" dual subs, and he would have an order of magnitude superior SQ with clear & convincing low bass. To me, a fine example of taking lower-fi to higher-fi, not relative to some absolute standard of fidelity levels, but simply relative to each other. Spend more, get more and you're still coming in at $15,000 range, which is peanuts in Agon's rarefied air, and which friend could easily afford if he cared enough.

Funny I just think of it as stereo.
Musicality to me is the key.
I wish I could do it for less money, but sometimes ya just gotta feed
the monkey.

Regards,
barts

I think of mid fi as more mass produced - assembly line ish and hifi as typically sold through audio (primarily) dealers produced in lower quantities.

That's not to say it is impossible to get hifi (high quality) in mass produced (or more highly produced) brands, but the snob appeal of some of the audio "salons" prevents them from carrying them.

Nobody could believe, even me at first, that an under 500 bucks system could be  "near" Hi-FI than most other costly system under 10,000 bucks or even more...

It is....

Atmasphere said it right, it is the "intention" of the designer that create Hi-FI or possible audiophile experience...There is a difference between craftmanship of a designber and an industrial process...

Then sure it takes first some gear with this intentions’s designer BEHIND it...We must first buy some good gear from a designer...

If you have it, even at low price, for example a vintage Sansui amplifier in their golden era, or the best Mission speakers created, it is acoustic science that will give you the most important part of the S.Q. even at low price like for myself...

Then money is not the main meter of Hi-FI scale but the ears and acoustic science are....