What defines mid-fi versus high-end?


I’m in my mid fifties and I recall 30 years back mid-fi to me fell into the NAD, Adcom, B&K…. For high-end I considered Mac, some of the Counterpoint offerings, Cary…. so forth.  I had another post going where I mentioned I acquired an Onkyo  home theater receiver that retailed new for $1,100.   Yet another agoner responded that it does not rate as mid-fi.   We all have our opinions of course.   So right or wrong here.
How do you define the parameters of high-end versus mid-if?  By money range, by brand…?

 

pdspecl

I recently jumped back into audio and put a system together for under 1k.  Tekton Lore speakers,  Rega Brio integrated amp,  Schiit Modi dac via and older NAD dvd/cd player I already had.  Definitely not high-end but the combination works well and I’m not wanting for more.   Mid-fi fits me fine I guess. 

I'm going to link to a video presentation from Merrill Audio talking about his GaN amps.  To me it's about how he talks about audio that's  important.  Things like  he doesn't have a power switch because it affects the sound.

These are the intricacies that mid-fi just doesn't address.  As I said in the last time this was question was posted.  You'll know the difference between mid-fi and Hi-fi when you hear it.

 

Not surprisingly mid fi sounds mid. Whereas hi fi sounds high.   See how that works?

Sales terms like 'mid-fi' and 'high-end' can only refer to price and profit margins and the boutique paraphernalia that comes with it.

These terms were created by those who sell and promote equipment.


For the rest of us, it's mainly performance that counts and that has only a tenuous relationship to the above.

I first heard the term “mid-fi” in the late 70s into the mid 80s whilst haunting several Houston area audio destinations that tended toward Magneplanar/Mark Levinson/Linn/Nakamichi/Acoustat/B&W/KlipschHeritage…later Apogee/Vandersteen/Stax, et al. “Mid Fi” at that time, was used to describe products from the Pioneer/Kenwood/Sony/Sansui/Technics et al strata and there were a couple of brands that sort of inhabited a grey area between mid and hi hi, notably Denon/Marantz/Sony ES series/NAD. Just an observation peculiar to those times.