What means Hi FI

High fidelity (often shortened to hi-fi or hifi) reproduction is a term used by

home stereo listeners, audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts to refer to high-
quality reproduction of sound[1] to distinguish it from the lower quality sound
produced by inexpensive audio equipment, or the inferior quality of sound
reproduction that can be heard in recordings made until the late 1940s.

Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudible noise and distortion, and a flat
(neutral, uncolored) frequency response within the intended frequency range.[2]

Bell Laboratories began experimenting with a range of recording techniques in the

early 1930s. Performances by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra were
recorded in 1931 and 1932 using telephone lines between the Academy of Music in
Philadelphia and the Bell labs in New Jersey. Some multitrack recordings were made
on optical sound film, which led to new advances used primarily by MGM (as early as
1937) and 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation (as early as 1941). RCA Victor began
recording performances by several orchestras using optical sound around 1941,
resulting in higher-fidelity masters for 78-rpm discs. During the 1930s, Avery
Fisher, an amateur violinist, began experimenting with audio design and acoustics.
He wanted to make a radio that would sound like he was listening to a live
orchestra�that would achieve high fidelity to the original sound. After World War
II, Harry F. Olson conducted an experiment whereby test subjects listened to a live
orchestra through a hidden variable acoustic filter. The results proved that
listeners preferred high fidelity reproduction, once the noise and distortion
introduced by early sound equipment was removed.

Beginning in 1948, several innovations created the conditions that made for major
improvements of home-audio quality possible:

Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, based on technology taken from Germany after
WWII, helped musical artists such as Bing Crosby make and distribute recordings
with better fidelity.
The advent of the 33? rpm Long Play (LP) microgroove vinyl record, with lower
surface noise and quantitatively specified equalization curves as well as noise-
reduction and dynamic range systems. Classical music fans, who were opinion leaders
in the audio market, quickly adopted LPs because, unlike with older records, most
classical works would fit on a single LP.
FM radio, with wider audio bandwidth and less susceptibility to signal
interference and fading than AM radio.
Better amplifier designs, with more attention to frequency response and much
higher power output capability, reproducing audio without perceptible distortion.
[3]
New loudspeaker designs, including acoustic suspension, developed by Edgar
Villchur and Henry Kloss improved bass frequency response.

In the 1950s, audio manufacturers employed the phrase high fidelity as a marketing
term to describe records and equipment intended to provide faithful sound
reproduction. While some consumers simply interpreted high fidelity as fancy and
expensive equipment, many found the difference in quality between "hi-fi" and the
then standard AM radios and 78 rpm records readily apparent and bought 33? LPs such
as RCA's New Orthophonics and London's ffrr (Full Frequency Range Recording, a UK
Decca system); and high-fidelity phonographs. Audiophiles paid attention to
technical characteristics and bought individual components, such as separate
turntables, radio tuners, preamplifiers, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Some
enthusiasts even assembled their own loudspeaker systems. In the 1950s, hi-fi
became a generic term for home sound equipment, to some extent displacing
phonograph and record player.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the development of the Westrex single-groove
stereophonic record cutterhead led to the next wave of home-audio improvement, and
in common parlance, stereo displaced hi-fi. Records were now played on a stereo. In
the world of the audiophile, however, the concept of high fidelity continued to
refer to the goal of highly accurate sound reproduction and to the technological
resources available for approaching that goal. This period is regarded as the
"Golden Age of Hi-Fi", when vacuum tube equipment manufacturers of the time
produced many models considered endearing by modern audiophiles, and just before
solid state (transistorized) equipment was introduced to the market, subsequently
replacing tube equipment as the mainstream technology.

A popular type of system for reproducing music beginning in the 1970s was the
integrated music centre�which combined a phonograph turntable, AM-FM radio tuner,
tape player, preamplifier, and power amplifier in one package, often sold with its
own separate, detachable or integrated speakers. These systems advertised their
simplicity. The consumer did not have to select and assemble individual components,
or be familiar with impedance and power ratings. Purists generally avoid referring
to these systems as high fidelity, though some are capable of very good quality
sound reproduction. Audiophiles in the 1970s and 1980s preferred to buy each
component separately. That way, they could choose models of each component with the
specifications that they desired. In the 1980s, a number of audiophile magazines
became available, offering reviews of components and articles on how to choose and
test speakers, amplifiers and other components.