What is HIFI?

                                                                   What is HIFI?

HiFi is the abbreviation of English High-Fidelity, literally translated as "high fidelity". In human terms, it refers to the replay sound that is highly similar to the original sound. Excellent HiFi equipment will give you a feeling of immersive sound, as if it is like a real person. It's like singing beside you.

If you want to understand HiFi, you must first understand how we hear so much beautiful music through mobile phones, computers, MP3 and other tools.

The process is simple:

First of all, it is necessary to collect the sounds from singers or various musical instruments through various devices, and then convert the sounds into digital signals for transmission. The higher the fidelity of the sound in this process, the better, so the songs we hear The studio version has more details than the concert version.

The second step is transmission. The music is mainly sent to the listeners through various media. Nowadays, most of them are transmitted through the Internet. Of course, some nostalgic parties prefer to collect records.

PS: Everyone must know that when we download or listen to music on major platforms, there will be a sound quality (music quality) option. The highest one is lossless sound quality. Lossless music occupies a very large storage space. The early Internet The transmission speed is still very limited, so people will choose to compress the music files, which will naturally affect the quality of the music. We call the compressed music "lossy" music, and it is divided into several according to the degree of compression. Grades (standard and high-definition), so early HiFi enthusiasts will buy more music stored in physical media, such as CDs, tapes, etc.

The last step is to play this piece of music through various devices. This is a process of converting digital signals to analog signals. Those HIFI enthusiasts play this step, because this step is the most prone to "distortion" in the whole process. There is a lot of knowledge in this, from the choice of decoders to power amplifiers and speakers.

In order for everyone to understand Moen, I will briefly explain the principles and functions of these three things below, which should be helpful to everyone.

Decoder (DAC)

Also known as a digital-to-analog converter, its function is to convert the sound stored in the form of a digital signal into an analog sound. This process will reduce the accuracy of the signal, so the quality of the decoder directly affects the quality of the final output sound.

Many of our commonly used electronic devices have built-in decoders, such as MP3, mobile phones, and computers. As long as there is a device with a headphone jack that can be plugged in to play music, it counts as one, and all of them have decoders. Vivo and Meizu are here The effort is the deepest, and many products come with separate decoding chips.

Although the above devices are all equipped with their own decoders, due to their complex internal structure and very strong electromagnetic interference, the traditional CD player has a better playback effect, but this whole set of equipment is also very sacrificed for convenience. huge.

amplifier

The full name of the power amplifier is to amplify the weaker music signal and then drive the speaker to play the sound, because the impedance of a good speaker will be relatively high in order to pursue detailed performance and control, and ordinary portable devices cannot be driven well, so it needs An amplifying device is used to amplify the signal and power. Of course, some mobile phones that pursue HiFi are also equipped with a dedicated operational amplifier chip, most of which are used to drive those large-unit headphones.

There are also devices specially used to drive headphones. We often call them earphone amplifiers. Since there is no need to provide too much power (thrust) to the headphones, the body is much smaller than the traditional power amplifier.

Portable Sony PHA-2A

speaker

Loudspeaker refers to our commonly used speakers and earphones. It is what everyone pays most attention to, because for ordinary users, the above two devices (decoder and power amplifier) are not just needed. In the era of mobile listening, a mobile phone + A headset is enough.

Many people say that choosing earphones is actually a metaphysics. In fact, Moen also wants to say the same, because it can save me a lot of saliva, but if I really do this, my conscience will definitely blame the length of my article. It seems too short. After all, although this is metaphysics, it is not all traceless.

Friends who have a certain sound quality pursuit but are too lazy to understand those complicated professional knowledge may wish to go to the physical store to try it out, because according to the differences in regional culture and technology accumulation, different brands of headphones often have a style of inheritance, forming own characteristics. For example, Grado and Beats in the United States focus on fashion, Sennheiser and B&O in Europe focus on classics, and Audio-Technica in Japan excels in vocals.

Different styles of headphones will naturally have different audiences, so if you want to know what kind of headphones are suitable for you, you can always choose the right one if you walk around and listen to it. I suggest that you try to choose the music you are familiar with during the audition. Because you can hear more details when you are familiar with the song.

If the above can’t satisfy you, it doesn’t matter, we still have an advanced article. After understanding the following points, you will know how to choose a better earphone that suits you.

1. Impedance

It can be understood as the power required to drive the earphone. The larger the diaphragm (the greater the impedance) of the part responsible for the sound in the earphone, the greater the thrust required. Of course, the output sound will be more tense and powerful. It is also more sufficient, and the high frequency can also go up.

If the tool you mainly use to play music is a mobile phone, you must not choose earphones with excessive impedance, because the thrust of the mobile phone is very limited. If you really don’t know how to choose, just choose earplugs or in-ear earphones, because they The diaphragm is relatively small, and the impedance is also small.

2. Sensitivity

The main effect is the ability to express the details of the sound. Simply put, the higher the sensitivity of the earphones, the more details you can hear. The concepts of resolutions such as 2K and 4K are generally the same.

3. Sound field

This is the 3D stereo that headphone manufacturers often boast. In terms of games, you can hear the direction in which the enemy is shooting at you. Good headphones can even hear the distance.

You are only a headphone with a great sound field performance from the highest level of "listening to the sound" in martial arts.

4. Frequency range

Refers to the frequency of the sound. This concept is mentioned the most in various forums and post bars. Many people will comment that a certain earphone has enough low-frequency dive and high-frequency performance. Sound belongs to low frequency, vocals, piano, guitar, etc. belong to intermediate frequency, and those sharper sounds such as flute belong to high frequency.

Although the sound frequency that we humans can hear is only between 20Hz-20kHz, as the saying goes, I can buy it without using it, but you can’t, so we should buy headphones with a wider frequency response range, the better.