hi-fi or lo-fi -- what does that mean?

[birv2]

I've been reading descriptions of pedals and modding for some time now and every once in a while someone describes a sound as "lo-fi" or "hi-fi". What exactly does that mean, for instance, when we're describing the sound of an overdrive pedal?

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

I would think that lo-fi would be ratty, loose, grungy, & brown.

When I think of hi-fi I think of fidelity, clarity & note definition even though there is breakup.

Who knows what others think of these terms.

 

[Griffin]

Yeah, that's a tough one because it means different things to different people.
LoFi can mean anything from Atari-type sounds all the way to the stock sound of a pedal.
When I use the term HiFi, I usually mean a crisp/clarity in the sound of the pedal. Usually doing a HiFi mod to a pedal makes the pedal in the stock form sound LoFi :thwap: