High fidelity (often abbreviated as hi-fi or hifi ) is a term used by listeners, audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts to refer to the reproduction sound quality. This is in contrast to the low quality sounds produced by inexpensive audio equipment, or the low sound reproduction quality that can be heard in recordings made until the late 1940s.
Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has unheard noise and distortion, and a flat (neutral, colorless) frequency response within the range of human hearing.
Video High fidelity
Histori
Bell Laboratories began experimenting with various recording techniques in the early 1930s. Performances by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra were recorded in 1931 and 1932 using a telephone line between the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and the Bell lab in New Jersey. Multiple multitrack recordings were made on optical sound films, 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 some orchestra using optical sounds around 1941, resulting in a higher fidelity master for 78-rpm discs. During the 1930s, Avery Fisher, an amateur violinist, began experimenting with audio and acoustic designs. He wanted to create a radio that would sound like he was listening to a live orchestra - which would achieve high loyalty to his original voice. After World War II, Harry F. Olson conducted an experiment in which the test subjects listened to the orchestra directly through a hidden variable acoustic filter. The results prove that the listener prefers a high fidelity reproduction, after which noise and distortion introduced by the earliest sound equipment are removed.
Beginning in 1948, several innovations created conditions that made major improvements to the audio-home quality possible:
- Recorded reel-to-reel audio tapes, based on technology taken from Germany after World War II, help music artists such as Bing Crosby create and distribute recordings with better allegiance.
- The emergence of a 33 (1/3 rpm) long microgroove record, with lower surface noise and quantitative quantization equalization curves and noise reduction and dynamic range systems. Fans of classical music, who are opinion leaders in the audio market, quickly adopted the LP because, unlike with old recordings, most of the classic works will fit on a single LP.
- FM radio, with wider audio bandwidth and less susceptibility to signal interference and fading from AM radio.
- Better reinforcement designs, with more attention to the higher frequency response and output power capability, reproduce the audio without obvious distortion.
- The new loudspeaker design, including the acoustic suspension, developed by Edgar Villchur and Henry Kloss improves the bass frequency response.
In the 1950s, audio producers used the phrase high fidelity as marketing terms to describe recordings and equipment intended to provide faithful sound reproduction. While some consumers only interpret high fidelity as expensive and expensive equipment, many find a difference in quality between hi-fi and standard AM radios then and the 78 rpm record is easily visible and buys 33 1/3 Black records such as New Orthophonics RCA and London's frfr (Full Frequency Range Recording, UK Decca system); and high quality phonograph. Audiophiles pay attention to technical characteristics and purchase individual components, such as separate turntables, radio tuners, preamplifiers, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Some fans even collect their own loudspeaker system. In the 1950s, hii fi became a generic term for home sound equipment, to some extent replacing the phonograph and record player .
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the development of Westrex single-groove stereophonic cutting tools led to the next wave of home-audio improvements, and in the common language of hibernated stereo hii fi >. The recording is now playing on stereo . In the audiophile world, however, the concept of high fidelity continues to refer to the purpose of accurate reproduction of sound and available technological resources to approach that goal. This period was regarded as the "Golden Age of Hi-Fi", when the vacuum tube manufacturer at the time produced many models that were regarded as captivating by modern audiophiles, and just before the solid state (transistorized) equipment was introduced to the market, subsequently replacing the tube equipment as a technology mainstream.
A popular system type to reproduce music that began in the 1970s was an integrated music center - incorporating a phonograph turntable, an AM-FM radio tuner, a cassette player, a preamplifier, and a power amplifier in one package, often sold separately, removed or integrated. This system advertises their simplicity. Consumers do not have to select and assemble individual components, or are familiar with impedance and power ratings. Purists generally avoid referring to these systems as high fidelity, although some are capable of excellent quality sound reproduction. Audiophiles in the 1970s and 1980s preferred to buy each component separately. That way, they can choose the model of each component with the specifications they want. In the 1980s, a number of audiophile magazines became available, offering component reviews and articles on how to select and test speakers, amplifiers, and other components.
Maps High fidelity
Listen to the
testThe listening test is used by hi-fi manufacturers, audiophile magazines and audio engineering researchers and scientists. If the listening test is done in such a way that the listener who assesses the sound quality of the component or the recording can see the components used for the test (for example, the same piece of music is heard through a tube power amplifier and a solid state amplifier), then the hearing bias may have existed before or against specific components or brands may affect their judgment. To respond to this problem, the researchers started using blind tests, in which the researchers could see the components tested, but not the listeners underwent experiments. In a double-blind experiment, neither the listener nor the researcher knows who belongs to the control group and experimental group, or what type of audio component is used to listen to the sample. Only after all the data has been recorded (and in some cases, analyzed) the researchers are studying which component or record is preferred by the listeners. The commonly used variant of this test is the ABX test. Subjects are presented with two known samples (eg A , references, and samples B , alternatives), and one unknown sample X, for three total sample. X is randomly selected from A and B , and the subject identifies X as A or B . Although there is no way to prove that a particular methodology is transparent, a properly performed double-blind test can prove that this method is not transparent.
Scientific double-blind tests are sometimes used as part of efforts to ascertain whether certain audio components (such as expensive and exotic cables) have a subjective, subjective effect on sound quality. The data collected from this double-blind test is not accepted by some "audiophile" magazines such as Stereophile and The Absolute Sound in the evaluation of their audio equipment. John Atkinson, current editor of Stereophile, states (in a July 2005 editorial named Blind Tests & Bus Stop that he once purchased a solid-state amplifier, Quad 405, on in 1978 after seeing the results of the blind test, but finally realized a few months later that "magic was gone" until he replaced it with a tube amp. Robert Harley of The Absolute Sound writes, in an editorial 2008 (on Issue 183), that: "... the blind listening test distorts the listening process fundamentally and is of no value in determining the hearing ability of a particular phenomenon.. "
Doug Schneider, editor of the online Soundstage network, denied this position with two editorials in 2009. He stated: "Blind tests are the core of decades-old research into loudspeaker design conducted at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). in order for their results to be trusted in the scientific community and have the most meaningful results, they must eliminate bias, and blind testing is the only way to do it. "Many Canadian companies such as Axiom, Energy, Mirage, Paradigm, PSB and Revel use blind testing extensively in designing their loudspeakers. Professional audio Dr. Sean Olive from Harman International shared this view.
Semblance realism
The stereophonic sound provides a partial solution to the problem of creating the illusion of a direct orchestra player by creating a ghost midway channel when the listener sits right in the middle of the two front loudspeakers. When the listener moves slightly to the side, this phantom channel disappears or is greatly reduced. The attempt to provide reproduction of echoes was attempted in the 1970s through quadraphonic sound but, once again, the technology at that time was not enough for the task. Consumers do not want to pay the additional fees and space needed for marginal improvements in realism. With the increasing popularity of home theater, however, multi-channel playback systems are becoming affordable, and many consumers are willing to tolerate the six to eight necessary channels at home theater. The advances made in signal processors to synthesize an estimate from a good concert hall can now provide a somewhat more realistic illusion of listening in the concert hall.
In addition to spatial realism, music playback should be free of noise, such as hissing or humming, to achieve realism. Compact discs (CDs) provide about 90 decibels of dynamic range, which exceeds the 80 dB dynamic music range as is usually felt in concert halls. Audio equipment should be able to reproduce frequencies high enough and low enough to be realistic. Human hearing distance, for healthy young people, is 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. Most adults can not hear higher than 15 kHz. CDs are able to reproduce frequencies as low as 10 Hz and as high as 22.05 kHz, making them sufficient to reproduce the frequency range that most humans can hear. The apparatus shall also not provide any apparent distortion of the signal or emphasis or emphasis on the frequencies in this frequency range.
Modularity < span id = "midi">
Integrated , mini , or system lifestyle (also known as the old music center or the midi system ) contains one or more sources such as a CD player, tuner, or cassette deck along with a preamplifier and power amplifier in a single box. Although some high-end manufacturers produce an integrated system, the product is generally underestimated by audiophiles, who prefer to build systems from separating (or components ), often with each item from the manufacturer different specializing in a particular component. This provides the flexibility to upgrade and repair parts by piece.
For slightly less flexibility in the increase, the preamplifier and power amplifier in a single box are referred to as integrated amplifiers ; with tuner, it is receiver . Monophonic power amplifiers, called monoblock , are often used to power a subwoofer. Other modules in the system can include components such as cartridges, tonearms, hi-fi turntables, Digital Media Players, digital audio players, DVD players that play a variety of discs including CDs, CD recorders, MiniDisc recorders, hi- fi video cassette recorders (VCRs) and reel-to-reel cassette recorder. Signal modification equipment can include equalizer and signal processor.
This modularity allows enthusiasts to spend as little or as much as they want on components that suit their particular needs. In systems built from separation, sometimes failure on one component still allows the use of part of the rest of the system. However, an improved system, which means no complete use of the system. Another advantage of modularity is the ability to spend money only on some core components at first and then add additional components to the system. Some of the disadvantages of this approach are the increased cost, complexity, and space required for components.
Modern tools
In the 2000s, modern hi-fi equipment could include signal sources such as digital audio bands (DAT), digital audio broadcasting (DAB) or HD Radio tuners. Some modern hi-fi equipment can be digitally connected using TOSLINK fiber optic cable, universal serial bus (USB) port (including one for playing digital audio files), or Wi-Fi support. Another modern component is a music server which consists of one or more computer hard drives that store music in the form of computer files. When music is stored in audio file formats that have no loss such as FLAC, Monkey's Audio or WMA Lossless, audio playback of recorded audio can serve as an audiophile-quality source for hi-fi systems.
See also
References
Further reading
- Pier Paolo Ferrari, (2016), Golden Age Hi-Fi , first edition, Bergamo, Italy: Sandit - ISBN 978-88-6928-171-6
- Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder, (2017), Designed for Hi-Fi Living: The Vinyl LP in MIdcentury America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press - ISBN 9780262036238
External links
- HiFi in Curlie (based on DMOZ)
- Home Entertainment Term Dictionary
Source of the article : Wikipedia