Maybe real Hi-fi sound is evapourating
Friday, 25. March 2011
The concept of Hi-fi seems to have hung present for a eons – so long that it feels like it should be old fashioned. But the real Hi-fi sound concept remains extremely up-to-date; it’s now often relevant to stereo docking stations, mobile MP3′s and home-based cinema systems – but recall the term is short for “high fidelity”.
Words develop and lose connection with their original meanings. Hence Hi-fi came to mean a group of devices – a disc player, an amplifier, some speakers – for playing music. This now reaches to a bigger array of options: more speaker types like subwoofers, tweeters and headphones, more technologies like MP3, CDs DVDs, surround sound, dolby, THX, blue ray. And let's face it, even the most modest iPods, modern disc player or maybe radio produces “high fidelity” compared to those available fifty years back.
Back then, “high fidelity” indicated products capable of delivering an audio quality reproduction superior to that other products, which were, well, lower fidelity. Fidelity – speaking the truth, being unswerving to the original. The famous old HMV brand of the dog sitting next to the phonograph graphically sent the message – that what he, the dog, heard was a faithful reproduction of the real deal.
Maybe just about all real Hi-fi sound systems sold nowadays are indeed high fidelity, but some are higher than others. The search for ever-higher fidelity goes on and annually sees further refinements to systems which already are extraordinarily good. But then, anyone who has put on a fine quality set of headphones to listen to a musical performance recorded under modern studio conditions can attest to something which is a bit of a Hi-Fi conundrum: namely, the recording sounds better than any original – so it’s really not giving you high fidelity.
How can this be so? Well, it boils down to the base fact that life, real life, is never going to be perfect, whereas, the technology of sound creation and reproduction gets crisper in the general direction of its own pinnacleof perfection.
You sit in a performance hall, an exhibition hall, and listen to a performance. The sound mix between, say, the 1st violins and the trumpets differs from seat to seat in the concert hall, with usually only one ‘perfect ‘ spot. But then it is not perfect for the mix between the violins and the tympani. Then there background noise – call it interference.
This real life performance experience is not necessarily something we would like to reproduce with great fidelity – it’s not quite good enough. We're not after a faithful representation of real life, but some superior ideal.
So , relax and enjoy: put on the headphones, switch on the CD, iPod or MP3. Hi-fi kit and associated technology can deliver to you, and quite cheaply, an audio experience which can truly be called divine since it surpasses what you can experience in ‘real ‘ life.
Find real Hi-fi sound in Sydney CBD and metro using the net directory dLook.