high fidelity

English

Etymology

From the idea of strong lifelikeness, being very much true to life, a faithful reproduction of the original sounds that were recorded, with very little loss of information.

Noun

high fidelity (uncountable)

1. The electronic reproduction of a given sound or image with relatively high accuracy.

   Alternative forms: hi-fi, HiFi, hifi (clipped compounds)

   Antonyms: low fidelity, lo-fi, LoFi, lofi; no fidelity, no-fi, NoFi, nofi

   • 1954 November 13, “The low-down on high fidelity”, in Billboard, page 127:

     High Fidelity is an attempt to minimize the effect of the electro-mechanical means necessary to the reproduction of music.

2. A high-quality reproduction of sound.
   • 1980 December 20, Maxell (advertisement), Billboard, page 75:

     AFTER 500 PLAYS OUR HIGH FIDELITY TAPE STILL DELIVERS HIGH FIDELITY

Translations

electronic system

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 高保真 (gāobǎozhēn)

• Esperanto: altfidelo
• Estonian: kõrge helikvaliteediga
• Finnish: hifi
• French: haute-fidélité (fr) f
• Greek: υψηλή πιστότητα f (ypsilí pistótita)
• Irish: ard-dílseacht f
• Japanese: ハイファイ (haifai)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: înaltă fidelitate (ro) f
• Russian: хай-фа́й (ru) m (xaj-fáj)
• Spanish: alta fidelidad
• Xibe: ᡥᠠᡞ
  ᡫᡝᡞ (hai fei)

Adjective

high fidelity (not comparable)

1. (of a sound system) Characterized by minimal distortion.