🔊 Sound equipment 🔊 High-quality sound

hi-fi

5.3

Sound that copies music very closely with little change

adjective
/ˈhaɪ faɪ/

Specialized

: alta fidelidad

As one who built his first hi-fi amplifier kit more than half a century ago and has a practical, if amateur, understanding of analog circuits, this made no sense to me at first:
hi-fi stereo
hi-fi sound

It's on the high fidelity speaker getting a more hi-fi sound, a more clown.

Examples

He prefers listening to jazz on his hi-fi setup to fully appreciate the rich sound.
When you listen to this, it sounds lo fi, but it's actually hi-fi lo fi because when you listen to bass drum, it's really full sounding.
Just stay away from the hi-fi system, all right?

Catch Me If You Can (2002)
It's on the high fidelity speaker getting a more hi-fi sound, a more clown.

Rick Beato
So you remember in, you know in perhaps I'll Draw Something from electronics so you know you remember from your hi-fi amplifier.
This music sounds incredible on a hi-fi system, making every note clear and vibrant.
The documentary highlighted how modern hi-fi technology can reproduce sound with exceptional clarity.

Synonyms

high-fidelity

vshi-fi

Specialized

1 5.2

Sound that is very close to the original recording

is the shorter label for equally accurate low distortion sound

How Faithful

hi-fi

Specialized

5.3

high fidelity

Specialized

1 4.2

audio quality

2 3.4

Surface Forms

hi-fi positive

higher-fidelity comparative

highest-fidelity superlative

Morphology

hi-fi = high + fidelity (semi-transparent) = hi + fi

Formed by clipped parts of 'high fidelity' so the origin is clear, but 'fidelity' is a less-frequent word and the clipping reduces immediacy of recognition for many learners.

Etymology

Hi-fi is short for high fidelity, where fidelity means 'faithfulness' or 'being true to the original'. So, calling sound hi-fi means it tries to be very 'true' to how the music was recorded.