The Audio Guru: What is Hi-Fi?

Vinylmnky's latest service to our Tribe is partnering up with Barry Thornton, an Audio guru to answer all of your hardware, vinyl, and audio questions - further enlightening us on how your music listening experience works and can get even better!

Barry Thornton, owner of AustinAudioWorks.com, is an experienced audiophile who has designed over 70 hi-fi products, taught psycho-acoustics, designed recording studios and performance venues, recorded records, has 30+ patents, has always been in love with vinyl, and always searching for the eargasm - that moment when the music comes alive. Barry has a long list of credits that you can find on his website, but most importantly he has lived and helped define the hi-fi era.

The latest question answered by the Audio Guru is:

 

What is Hi-Fi?

The question we have before us today is, "What is Hi-Fi?" Technically in a couple words it’s real simple, but it’s actually not. Hi-Fi simply means hi -fidelity, fidelity means faithfulness, talks about reproductive accuracy and faithful reproducing of sounds that you can record and play back. The nature of Hi-Fi changes with time, the better sounds you come across the more you will understand the difference. It is all in our minds, the whole music production is an illusion, in many ways people are encouraged to hallucinate. To play music back in a small room; the effort of the music is to make you think you are somewhere else or to cause a rekindling of feelings out from your mind that cause you to go into a different space. The “real” definition of cyberspace is where your mind goes when you are on the telephone. Think about that for a second. A good movie is something that causes you to suspend your belief in reality. Hi-Fi and audio are part of making a movie and are used to create and stimulate the mind. The more you listen, the better you will get at listening, and the more critical you will become. Hi-Fi has something to do with helping bring data to the brain. The goal is to make things feel more real and Hi-Fi will help get you there.

Barry is here to help the Tribe bolster their listening experience and provide insght into the audiophile world in small, simple, and fun bites. Go ahead, give him your best.