Editing High fidelity (section)

== History ==
[[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 telephone lines between the [[Academy of Music (Philadelphia)|Academy of Music]] in Philadelphia and the Bell labs in New Jersey. Some [[multitrack recording]]s were made on optical sound film, which led to new advances used primarily by [[MGM]] (as early as 1937) and [[Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation]] (as early as 1941). [[RCA Victor]] began recording performances by several orchestras using optical sound around 1941, resulting in higher-fidelity masters for [[78-rpm disc]]s. During the 1930s, [[Avery Fisher]], an amateur violinist, began experimenting with audio design and [[acoustics]]. He wanted to make a radio that would sound like he was listening to a live orchestra and achieve high fidelity to the original sound. After [[World War II]], [[Harry F. Olson]] conducted an experiment whereby test subjects listened to a live orchestra through a hidden variable acoustic filter. The results proved that listeners preferred high-fidelity reproduction, once the noise and distortion introduced by early sound equipment was removed.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

Beginning in 1948, several innovations created the conditions that made major improvements in home audio quality possible:
* [[Reel-to-reel audio tape recording]], based on technology taken from Germany after WWII, helped musical artists such as [[Bing Crosby]] make and distribute recordings with better fidelity.
* The advent of the 33⅓ rpm [[long play]] (LP) microgroove [[vinyl record]], with lower [[surface noise]] and quantitatively specified [[RIAA equalization|equalization curves]] as well as noise-reduction and dynamic range systems. [[Classical music]] fans, who were [[opinion leaders]] in the audio market, quickly adopted LPs because, unlike with older records, most classical works would fit on a single LP.
* Higher quality [[turntables]], with more responsive [[phonograph#|needles]]
* [[FM radio]], with wider audio bandwidth and less susceptibility to signal interference and fading than [[AM radio]].
* Better [[amplifier]] designs, with more attention to frequency response and much higher power output capability, reproducing audio without perceptible [[distortion]].<ref name="Lander">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/3/2006_3_13.shtml |author=David Lander |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223172555/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/3/2006_3_13.shtml |archive-date=2007-02-23 |title=The Buyable Past: Classic Hi-Fi Components |magazine=American Heritage |date=June–July 2006}}</ref>
* New [[loudspeaker]] designs, including [[acoustic suspension]], developed by [[Edgar Villchur]] and [[Henry Kloss]] with improved bass frequency response.

In the 1950s, audio manufacturers employed the phrase ''high fidelity'' as a marketing term to describe records and equipment intended to provide faithful sound reproduction. Many consumers found the difference in quality compared to the then-standard AM radios and 78-rpm records readily apparent and bought high-fidelity phonographs and 33⅓ LPs such as [[RCA]]'s New Orthophonics and London's FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording, a UK [[Decca Records|Decca]] system). [[Audiophile]]s focused on technical characteristics and bought individual components, such as separate turntables, radio tuners, [[phono stages]], [[preamplifier]]s, [[power amplifier]]s and loudspeakers. Some enthusiasts even assembled their loudspeaker systems, with the advent of integrated multi-speaker console systems in the 1950s, ''hi-fi'' became a generic term for home sound equipment, to some extent displacing ''phonograph'' and ''record player''.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the development of [[stereophonic]] equipment and recordings led to the next wave of home-audio improvement, and in common parlance ''stereo'' displaced ''hi-fi''. Records were now played on ''a stereo'' (stereophonic phonograph). In the world of the audiophile, however, the concept of ''high fidelity'' continued to refer to the goal of highly accurate sound reproduction and to the technological resources available for approaching that goal. This period is regarded as the "Golden Age of Hi-Fi", when [[vacuum tube]] equipment manufacturers of the time produced many models considered superior by modern audiophiles, and just before [[solid state (electronics)|solid state]] ([[transistor]]ized) equipment was introduced to the market, subsequently replacing tube equipment as the mainstream technology.

[[File: McIntosh MA6800.jpg|thumb|An [[integrated amplifier]] combines an audio [[preamplifier]] and [[power amplifier]] into one unit, and is an example of the "component" approach to assembling a comprehensive sound reproduction system.]]
  
In the 1960s, the [[Federal Trade Commission|FTC]] with the help of the audio manufacturers came up with a definition to identify high-fidelity equipment so that the manufacturers could clearly state if they meet the requirements and reduce misleading advertisements.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lachenbruch|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ewsEAAAAMBAJ&q=high+fidelity+definition&pg=PA47|title=Billboard|date=1963-03-23|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|isbn=|location=|pages=47}}</ref>

A popular type of system for reproducing music beginning in the 1970s was the integrated [[music centre]]—which combined a phonograph turntable, AM-FM radio tuner, tape player, preamplifier, and power amplifier in one package, often sold with its own separate, detachable or integrated speakers. These systems advertised their simplicity. The consumer did not have to select and assemble individual components or be familiar with impedance and power ratings. Purists generally avoid referring to these systems as high fidelity, though some are capable of very good quality sound reproduction.

Audiophiles in the 1970s and 1980s preferred to buy each component separately. That way, they could choose models of each component with the specifications that they desired. In the 1980s, several audiophile magazines became available, offering reviews of components and articles on how to choose and test speakers, amplifiers, and other components.