On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 16:08:20 -0800, Andre Jute burbled:

snip

The key is the phrase which names our hobby: "high fidelity reproduction
of recorded music at home", usually just rendered as "high fidelity" or
"hi-fi". Consider the words, which are a precise description and have been
a precise description since roundabout WW2. We should ask two questions:

1. What is fidelity? This is usually taken to be a window on the concert
hall.


Oh, what a question! Fidelity: 15th century. Directly or via French
Latin fidelitas "faithfulness" fides "faith". It *could* be taken to
mean "a window on the concert hall" or it could mean "true to life". The
two arn't necessarily equal.

2. Have we achieved fidelity? The answer is generally agreed to be
negative, so that we talk about the closest approach to the concert hall,
and invariably speak only of qualified fidelity, as in "high" fidelity.


If it sounds "lifelike" to you then you have achieved "fidelity"! The term
"high fidelity" is, of course, an invention of the marketing bods to sell
more equipment and is meaningless. ;-)

--
Mick
(no M$ software on here... :-) )
Web: http://www.nascom.info