High Fidelity started in 1951 as a quarterly edition, subsequently switching to monthly issues with [url=https://discogs.com/artist/4767892]Charles Fowler[/url] as the editor and publisher. He sold the magazine to Billboard Publications Inc. in 1957. Sixteen years later, [url=https://discogs.com/label/564305]American Broadcasting Companies[/url] purchased High Fidelity with a circulation of 260,000 for $9 mln (equivalent to $54.3 mln in 2022). ABC Consumer Magazines relocated the editorial office from its original location in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to New York City in 1981.

In 1989, ABC sold High Fidelity to a controversial and brazen publisher Peter G. Diamandis (1931—2013). Two years earlier, he led a management buyout of CBS Magazines, a division of CBS Inc. with 22 specialty publications, including two other prominent Hi-Fi magazines, [url=https://discogs.com/label/771704]AUDIO[/url] and CBS Inc.. As soon as Diamandis acquired High Fidelity, which had a circulation of 327,000, he immediately closed it, terminating the entire editorial team and "merging" all the existing subscribers with Stereo Review. Subsequently, Diamandis sold his company and all media assets to [url=https://discogs.com/label/1181842]Hachette Filipacchi Médias[/url].