FAQ

Who is this for?

Seek HiFi is for people who are interested in hearing great recordings. I've built several hi-fi systems, and I always love finding a new song or rediscovering one that makes my jaw drop. It's like this: if you build a chef's kitchen, you want to make more than Kraft mac and cheese. (Although it totally makes sense to use it for that every once in a while).

When does the newsletter go out?

Every Tuesday.

Where can I find Seek HiFi content? Is it only email?

Seek HiFi is primarily focused on the weekly email, but there is other content on the site and elsewhere. I publish playlists and mix tapes available on Apple Music and Tidal for subscribers. I may add other platforms if people request them. I'm also looking into different content types and platforms, but this website will always be the hub.

What does "hi-fi" mean?

It's subjective. There is no qualification or standard for "hi-fi". It means different things to different people. As the saying goes, there's no accounting for taste. Hi-fi a vibe (literally.)

It is helpful to understand that hi-fi is short for high fidelity, and fidelity means "faithfulness to." So when people describe something as hi-fi, they typically mean that it sounds faithful to the creators' intent.

Typically, a recording with the following criteria is considered high fidelity.

• Dynamic range - There is an audible contrast between loud, medium, and soft parts; you can hear them all simultaneously. If the audio is overly compressed, it sounds like the volume of everything in the mix is about the same. Nothing is loud or soft. It's just there or not. The middle of the mix is missing. This often gets described as sounding "scooped out" or "flat." It's like an image with poor contrast–dull.
• Detail - You can hear subtle inner details in the mix: stuff happening close to microphones. Picks are scratching and sliding on guitar strings, lips are smacking, there are short inhales before vocal expressions, hammer-falls are present at the boundaries of piano notes, etc. Stuff like this should be there if you're listening for it, but unobtrusive if you're not.
• Imaging - Instrument separation and focus are well maintained. You can choose an individual instrument or performance and listen to it consistently.
• Sound stage - The music dynamically fills the space; it isn't just a wall of sound. If a song has an excellent sound stage, there is width, height, and depth to the sound. When you can place certain aspects of a recording in a three-dimensional space, this is stereophonic imaging; you must be in the sweet spot between two (or more) speakers to get it. This is impossible with mono recordings or with single-speaker playback. Surround sound systems with more than two speakers can make this sweet spot larger, but surround sound comes with other challenges.
• Timbre - You can tell apart instruments, vocalists, and other sound sources. They have unique voices. Bright, airy sounds can exist simultaneously with smooth, mellow sounds.

Why are you doing this?

I was doing this anyway. Finding and sharing great tracks with friends in real life and online is something I've been doing for a long time. It makes me happy. I had some free time, so I decided to do it even harder.

How is this made?

This is simple. I'm only writing my opinion. These are songs I like. Does that count for anything? Unsure, but I am gathering data.

From whence does this opinion come? I was briefly an audio engineer in college, but that was long ago. I don't have fancy lab gear and measurements accompanying my recommendations or influencing my curation process. I've built several nice hi-fi setups in my house over the years. I like to listen critically to music, and it makes me happy to share.