When did the recording industry first use High Fidelity?
The improvement of recording technology was continual over the years. The term “high fidelity” originated with the sound systems installed in theaters for sound films in the 1930s. Some companies began to market high fidelity amplifiers and speakers for use in the home before 1950. They got better every year, and in the 1950s stereo sound was an additional development in advancing the quality of reproduced sound. The LP record in 1948 was seen as an advance in putting high fidelity into the sound carrier. Open reel tape was seen as better than any records, but it was too complicated for widespread popular use and the cassette replaced it, easier to use but not better sound. If you understand that there was not one moment when low fidelity was replaced by high fidelity, you could pinpoint 1949 as a turning point.
