Hi-Fi [antikvár]

In the last ten years almost every recording and playback problem has been solved. Now we are looking toward perfection The phrase "high fidelity" is probably 30 years old; it was invented by England's H. A. Hartley at about the time the first permanent-magnet loudspeakers came into production. Of the three hi-fi sound sources, one (FM radio) has been with us for a quarter of a century, another (expanded-frequency phonograph records) has been technically feasible for 20 years, the third (high-coercivity magnetic tape) has been around since the end of the last war. The first magnetic phonograph pickups were issued by General Electric and Pickering in 1947, the first long-playing records by Columbia in 1948. Today, there is nothing new or strange about "high fidelity." The words are used in all sorts of contexts, to describe lipstick, furniture, automobile accessories and what-have-you. They are also used to describe about 80% of all phonographs and radios made in the U.S. High fidelity is not an easy term to define, because it deals with the reproduction of sound, and sound qualities are always elusive. Sound exists both subjectively, as something heard, and objectively, as a force in the air which can be measured by instruments. The hearing is more important than the measuring, and the two do not always agree. The human ear is a wonderful electromechanical device, but it simply cannot be standardized: