Blue Pill / Red Pill

[kratu]

There is choice in front of you. You take the blue pill, you stay in the wonderland with your bluetooth speakers and enjoy the melody and the tune. Ignorance is bliss, they say.

If you take the red pill, you get to really know the depth of music, with its undulating troughs and scintillating nuances. While your bank balance also seeing the repercussions.

What would your choice be if you had the chance to go back decades, perhaps your college days? Or now when you have already have embarked on this journey. Would that choice be any different or would you still take the red pill?

 

[AP@1992]

There is choice in front of you. You take the blue pill, you stay in the wonderland with your bluetooth speakers and enjoy the melody and the tune. Ignorance is bliss, they say.

If you take the red pill, you get to really know the depth of music, with its undulating troughs and scintillating nuances. While your bank balance also seeing the repercussions.

What would your choice be if you had the chance to go back decades, perhaps your college days? Or now when you have already have embarked on this journey. Would that choice be any different or would you still take the red pill?

I am in the middle of the journey.

Some months ago, someone got me a B&O A9 5th Gen. And since, it has been my main system. My stereo gets used very selectively. Sound is unbelievably clean, large and organic. So life like. Really highend DSP and bass linerazation software built.It can rival with many high end system. It can't do stereo, unless you buy two which will is 6-7 lakhs for a stereo pair.

If I had listened to this speaker earlier, I would have never delved into the Red Pill. This setup has ease, simplicity and you listen to music and your critical mind just stays mute.You can sit anywhere, it's always on, you can listen to more music than gears. I have rediscovered so much music with this while I am always searching for audiophile tracks to test my stereo and see how much it can bring to the table.

I have started to question my madness but it is what it is.

If someone is starting today and 7 lakhs, I would strongly advised to check this out.

 

[Nitin K]

There is choice in front of you. You take the blue pill, you stay in the wonderland with your bluetooth speakers and enjoy the melody and the tune. Ignorance is bliss, they say.

If you take the red pill, you get to really know the depth of music, with its undulating troughs and scintillating nuances. While your bank balance also seeing the repercussions.

What would your choice be if you had the chance to go back decades, perhaps your college days? Or now when you have already have embarked on this journey. Would that choice be any different or would you still take the red pill?

Which pill to take will depend on the money in hand at that point in time
Can live with both pills but will prefer the red.

 

[jigarpatel]

I will take Red Pill stay in Wonderland and see how far I can go into this Rabbit Hole.

 

[kratu]

Which pill to take will depend on the money in hand at that point in time
Can live with both pills but will prefer the red.

Eventually people find ways to find the coins somehow. Do we find contentment in the ignorance or dig deeper?

This conundrum is felt more dearly by those who have already taken the red pill and wondering if that was the right choice. As Cypher says “Why why didn’t I take the blue pill”.

Somewhere, somehow there needs to be sanity check, I guess. This gets insane and frustrating at the ultra high-end category, where they would spend $$$$ for a 2% improvement.

 

[Bhaskar Jyoti Talapatra]

I think the red pill is better for me if only my pocket gets deeper of course. Well, if I had been given chance to go back to my college days, I would definitely grab a decent stereo system and a legendary TT (may be Technics) would have been my starting point. Even today I regretted for not buying pre-owned TTs back in 90's , 2000 when people sold their TTs and used electronic shops in Kolkata were selling TTs at a cheaper rate. Besides this , going back towards those bygone days I would buy many vinyls which then was not so overhyped and one could buy them with out burning his pocket. 90's was a good time for cassette decks. So I would have bought a good sonodyne tape deck which I always dreamt to have but could not buy . Last but not the least I would attend music concerts in Kolkata to watch some legends like Pt. Rabi shankar performing whose stage performance I have never seen. If those became reality , I would have regarded myself lucky.
Regards

 

[Nitin K]

Eventually people find ways to find the coins somehow. Do we find contentment in the ignorance or dig deeper?

This conundrum is felt more dearly by those who have already taken the red pill and wondering if that was the right choice. As Cypher says “Why why didn’t I take the blue pill”.

Somewhere, somehow there needs to be sanity check, I guess. This gets insane and frustrating at the ultra high-end category, where they would spend $$$$ for a 2% improvement.

Very true, totally agree with the "sanity" part of it. The red pill will always be interesting though

 

[SatMumbai]

Took the Red Pill, went down the rabbit hole and all that jazz! Now, fortunately, I (hope) became wiser that this is not the only journey.. Not every JOURNEY some one else does need not be MY JOURNEY.. Do not have the same amount of rushing urge any more to do the HiFi Journey, Motorcycle Journey, Car Journey etc. Feels like enjoying Nature, appreciating Sunsets (be it in the city), thankful to the human company that we have etc is all under rated and would love it to be rated the right amount and above the HiFi journey at the least. Thinking about what I am writing, probably I too the wrong kind of RED Pill

 

[Analogous]

Red pill for me in spite of the agonies endured

 

[kratu]

Took the Red Pill, went down the rabbit hole and all that jazz! Now, fortunately, I (hope) became wiser that this is not the only journey.. Not every JOURNEY some one else does need not be MY JOURNEY.. Do not have the same amount of rushing urge any more to do the HiFi Journey, Motorcycle Journey, Car Journey etc. Feels like enjoying Nature, appreciating Sunsets (be it in the city), thankful to the human company that we have etc is all under rated and would love it to be rated the right amount and above the HiFi journey at the least. Thinking about what I am writing, probably I too the wrong kind of RED Pill

One will eventually find that material/sensorial gratification is temporal and there is true and lasting joy in the spiritual/higher realm. That is wisdom, probably a red pill will eventually show.

Yes, there are many pursuits and simple pleasures which are under-rated and best of all, won’t damage our future finances. I’m glad someone brought this up.

Red pill for me in spite of the agonies endured

Agonies and struggles are part of every pursuit worth trying but what needs to be asked is the financial toll it leaves through the journey. Perhaps, there has to be a line drawn.

 

[arj]

I guess we also have the option of a purple (R+B) pill here.
This is a Hobby and by nature a hobby can consume you in levels far deeper than just listening which can be a good thing if done sensibly. As long as one retains the ability to be happy with a spotify in a decent car audio, a buetooth earphone or on TV and still switch on to a proper Hifi setup one can be happy with both

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

As long as one retains the ability to be happy with a spotify in a decent car audio, a buetooth earphone or on TV and still switch on to a proper Hifi setup one can be happy with both

Well said! My antidote is to listen to an ancient classical recording once in a while to remind myself of what ultimately matters. Like ‘Jaat Kahan Ho’ by Kesarbai, which is somewhere out there in interstellar space on the Voyager.

 

[availlyrics]

Let's hear it straight from Morpheus himself

 

[alladinkachirag]

Sometimes I just so strongly wish that I should have never taken that Red pill. But, thinking retrospectively my red pill induced urges are kind of 8+ years apart so dent it lesser but still it is a dent. However, I know I would have taken that red pill no matter what . I am just so prone to making questionable decisions

 

[sivakumars]

Fantastic topic you brought up.. Within a few mins of reading the post, I went through the whole journey and where it ended up. I actually lost more money in the form of time(which I borrowed it from the private consulting work that I have been doing before) than I spent money in buying gears. Countless hours of deep thinking, deciding.. When I reflect, I spent more time in

* Thinking about next upgrade
* deciding what to buy
* reading reviews
* A/B testing gears
* Suspecting the calibration and redoing

than I listened / experienced the setup I had in that time.


I believe the journey started(bit the red pill) when I was in my early teenage, I started playing around with the speaker that I have obtained from old radio, tried to put it in a clay pot, and tried to build a box with cardboards etc. From that time onwards, this has been a pattern. I'll setup something, but very soon(before experiencing it most probably), starts looking for what to do next.

I'm pretty new to this forum. But very soon, I built a very good understanding that it is gonna never end(not only for me).


From the last upgrade I made, I literally sensed this. It was so exciting to setup and calibrate and play some demo videos and songs that are my favourite. After couple of days, the excitement is gone. It was all like before the upgrade.

This gave me a realization that it is never going to end if we don't end it.

Sorry for the long comment.

Coming back to your question, Yeah, I'll still bite the red pill but with a very strict budget with the realisation that there will always be better setups and I can't make mine perfect even if I have a next life. It all comes down to stopping at the bare minimum point that I want to enjoy music and movies.

I still need to get few gears, but it is for totally different purpose, not to replace any of the existing. Let's see how it goes.

 

[kratu]

Sometimes I just so strongly wish that I should have never taken that Red pill. But, thinking retrospectively my red pill induced urges are kind of 8+ years apart so dent it lesser but still it is a dent. However, I know I would have taken that red pill no matter what . I am just so prone to making questionable decisions

Great, that is a good approach. One can space them so apart that either they wither away eventually or stick for that long; in which case you know it is more than a passing fad. That way you have far less damages.

For years I've been doing armchair research and dreaming about that endgame vinyl system. While I "still" play the same turntable for over a decade. And I just spent 6 grands on that. There is actually no such thing as "endgame" equipment. It is always the next one

 

[reignofchaos]

Yep there is never an absolute endgame. Our endgame depends on our wants and means.

It is human nature to never ever be satisfied with anything .

 

[panditji]

I am in the middle of the journey.

Some months ago, someone got me a B&O A9 5th Gen. And since, it has been my main system. My stereo gets used very selectively. Sound is unbelievably clean, large and organic. So life like. Really highend DSP and bass linerazation software built.It can rival with many high end system. It can't do stereo, unless you buy two which will is 6-7 lakhs for a stereo pair.

If I had listened to this speaker earlier, I would have never delved into the Red Pill. This setup has ease, simplicity and you listen to music and your critical mind just stays mute.You can sit anywhere, it's always on, you can listen to more music than gears. I have rediscovered so much music with this while I am always searching for audiophile tracks to test my stereo and see how much it can bring to the table.

I have started to question my madness but it is what it is.

If someone is starting today and 7 lakhs, I would strongly advised to check this out.

Pardon me for asking but how do you make/find friends who get you B&O A9 5th Gens ?

 

[AP@1992]

Pardon me for asking but how do you make/find friends who get you B&O A9 5th Gens ?

Hahahahaha.

 

[kratu]

Fantastic topic you brought up.. Within a few mins of reading the post, I went through the whole journey and where it ended up. I actually lost more money in the form of time(which I borrowed it from the private consulting work that I have been doing before) than I spent money in buying gears. Countless hours of deep thinking, deciding.. When I reflect, I spent more time in

I'm pretty new to this forum. But very soon, I built a very good understanding that it is gonna never end(not only for me).

From the last upgrade I made, I literally sensed this. It was so exciting to setup and calibrate and play some demo videos and songs that are my favourite. After couple of days, the excitement is gone. It was all like before the upgrade.

This gave me a realization that it is never going to end if we don't end it.

Coming back to your question, Yeah, I'll still bite the red pill but with a very strict budget with the realisation that there will always be better setups and I can't make mine perfect even if I have a next life. It all comes down to stopping at the bare minimum point that I want to enjoy music and movies.

What you bring up is important. Time is more precious than money; something you could never get back. Fortunately, we have senior audiophiles who have spent years exploring that same path. Trying, evaluating, swapping gear. And their expertise and suggestions have greatly reduced my chances of ending into a vortex. And some are honest enough to advise not to pursue down the road.

I'm glad you have come to the realisation early on. It is about making conscious decisions based on scarce resources and optimising them. At the end knowledge and acceptance is helpful.