در پاسخ به نوشته من آقای مهندس پوینده عزیز دیروز نامه زیر را برای من فرستادند :

I had the opportunity to go over  Mr. Akbari’s  article on hifi.ir which I presume is  a respond to my previous email  .   Firstly, I would like to clear this out  that I never  intended to offend him or his love for high end audio  and my personal email to him  was  merely a  warning to avoid him of the common mistakes we encounter in evaluating  high end audio gear . I also have no intension   to make this correspondence a  two sided argument  or  a  battle ground for our views and discretion which is out of reader’s patine  .

In respond to his article I would like to outline the followings :

•    As for the importance of having trained  ears for  judgment of music systems  ,  I think it is  a  must !  knowing what sounds good and what does not is easy , most people can tell the difference between excellent and poor sound. But discovering why a product is musically satisfying or not , and the ability to recognize and describe subtle differences in sound quality , are learned skills . Critical listening , the practice of evaluating the quality of audio equipment by careful analytical listening is very different from listening for pleasure. The goal is not to enjoy the musical experience but to determine if a system or component sounds good or bad and what specific characteristics of the sound make it good or bad .  Hours and hours and years of seriously and critically listening to music will make you a critical listener and  that does  not mean you have to be   a musician or a virtuoso .Our knowledge in recognizing timbre accuracy and musicality  is usually attained through long and serious   listening to music . This would definitely train our ears . I myself have made numerous   mistakes in selecting audio equipment just because I lacked enough experience in critical listening .   The audio engineering is a very sophisticated science. A science   in which one has to create the true texture  of a human voice or accurate timbre of  violin or cello by putting together   electronic devises like conductors , capacitors, resistances or …..…. . A very serious task.

•    As for the acoustics, we all know and it  is a proven fact that the   true nature of a   good music system can only be demonstrated in  an acoustically suitable environment . Robert Harley in his book on high end audio   has a nice expression :

“An excellent room can help get the most out of a modest system , but a poor room can make a great system sound mediocre.”

Since the invention of high end audio almost every true and dedicated  audiophile is aware of the importance of good and proper acoustics. The question is only our limitations in creating good acoustics in our living spaces. It would have been excellent  If we had the luxury of constructing an isolated acoustic room   in our household from scratch  but as long as we live in the apartments that our neighbors are constantly fighting with each other on   having Ghormeh Sabzi or Abgoosht for dinner, and the guy upstairs is blowing   his head off   listening to frightening boom box  weird music  and  their kids are constantly running and jumping over our heads the  question of   acoustic becomes  a bit irrelevant.
But I have a point to make :   if a system has flaw and fundamental error in its design  the acoustic can not remove it . In my place which is not acoustically correct room  amps have different design    characteristics and very easy to identify which amp is precise and accurate and  which amp    is not. I myself have experienced this with Amir . The same environment exist for all of    the amps from solid state to tube and  they all sound  differently. This has all to do with basic circuit design of the amps. Just a reminder that the  most expensive interconnects in the world  can not eliminate the design flaw of a system. Can only enhance it!!
As for the Vitus amplifier , Amir has  referred to a musician   in South East Asia who claims that Vitus is great on piano, violin, cello and ….?  With all respect , I think it is  wise to  make our  own judgment about a system and not rely on others. as long as I have acquired enough experience and knowledge and have done hours of critical listening I am entitled to judge.  Just because a classical music lover in another part of the world  is in fond of Vitus  does not mean that I have to AGREE WITH HIM.   I have musician friends that can hardly differentiate between a very mediocre and mid fi sound system with a high end top notch audio gear  but  they are good musicians (  obviously according to the Iranian standards!! )  It is fine , they are also enjoying music and I admire them but musicians with limited experience in high end audio and trained ears can make mistakes too.   I think I have to carefully audition  a music system  before making any  judgment, preferably in an acoustically correct listening room.
In my opinion  and based on my immediate impression VITUS    was not very precise in reproducing music but its   features like  politeness, smooth rendering and  ease was remarkable , definitely not  my choice for a power amp.
There are a lot more to say but it is out of my patience and readers of this article .
I wish Amir the best in his pursue of high end audio and this hobby.  By no means I intended to offend him and just tried to coordinate with him my views on evaluating good sound systems .
Thanks and many hours of good listening .
Cheers,

F.Pooyandeh