Grateful Dead Live Compilation "30 Trips Around the Sun" *

The wife just texted the porch crusher arrived! Heavy she said, but no damage to the concrete. I never got a shipping notice other than the generic email they were going out. Pretty pumped about it now.

 

My jaw has just dropped in a Willie The Coyote fashion.

 

Well Hell's bells! What does that mean for the rest of us? How soon into the initial offering did you place your order? Who do you know that we don't know? In terms of unrealistic expectations born of frantic anticipation, I can say that I'm only about 4 hours from you. So, I wonder if geography is a factor? Oh, man! I wasn't shaking until now.

 

Yep, mine has arrived and it is a beautiful set. Put the 1995 show on first ... and it's good! Is there a book somewhere within this thing, or just the PDF they sent weeks ago?

Wonder when they'll be shipping my USB stick. Anyone know?

 

Did you folks who have received your boxes already pay for expedited shipping?

Out of curiosity I checked my order status and it was still "backordered" but we all know how reliable the IT backend at dead.net is...

 

That's Wile E. Coyote. Super genius.

 

Same here. I didn't have the expedited shipping option, so it's gonna be a long way to Tipper... I mean, South America.

 

I cannot remember 100%, but I would say I ordered within the first week. I am being told it was sent from Crozet VA, so you should walk over and get yours! It was sent UPS.

 

No expedited shipping here.

 

As an historian of both WWI and Ireland I appreciated this comment way more than you probably realize.

I'm not going to be able to stand up at work with this kind of talk being bandied about....

 

I ordered on day one and my status shows back-ordered until 10/31.

 

Same here. But, you know, I simply don't trust that information provided by the webpage.

 

A lot of Dead stuff ships from Crozet, which is about 90 mins from here. I got my irder through on Day 1 of the offer, and I paid for 3 day shipping. EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! That's my squeal.

 

How well was it packed? Padded well?

 

Would you be able to give us some details about the CD's packaging? Your generosity will be appreciated, at least by me.

 

And me. This thread's about to blow up.

 

Tell us about your backstage pass etc!

 

Mine is still out for delivery, but to answer a couple questions,

1) I did not pay for expedited shipping
2) I'm sure I wasn't one of the 1st to order because I didn't place my order until late July
3) I am only a 2 hr drive from the warehouse they are coming from

maybe they are shipping the closest to them 1st to get the product in people hands as soon as possible.

 

Are these sets coming USPS or UPS?

 

Did you get the special Golden Ticket with yours?

 

I guess UPS for expedited shipping, USPS for regular one.

 

Any recommendations on ripping this to a lossless format? I'm on mac and have always just used XLD to rip to FLAC (and then converted the FLAC to MP3 if I want a lossy copy). Am I losing out on anything, particularly with the HDCD encoding? I would hate to make it all the way through this thing to decide/discover I should have done it a different way. Of course, I have been doing it this way for a while now (Complete Fillmore, Spring 90, Spring 90 TOO, Europe 72, etc.) so I can kick myself repeatedly anyway.

 

Everyone says HDCD decoding is worth for the Dead, but I think your options are limited on mac. There is some information here http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/rip-and-play-hdcd-on-mac-20bits.266032/

 

Yeah, even after reading all that, I am still stumped on HDCD playback since I import everything into iTunes on a Mac. I rip all my GD to AIFF using Max and then import into iTunes, and I purchased the Download Series as FLACs and converted to AIFF. Given that, I hope I am right that the HDCD info is there even if I can't figure out how to decode it for playback. But since I am at an impasse on decoding, generally, if I'm going to listen to a full GD official release at home, other than the Download Series that I've been too lazy to burn onto CDs, I dig out and play the CDs, which is a bit of a drag because the DAC connected to the computer is better than the one in the CD player. First world problem for sure, but I'd still like to solve it someday.

[Edit: I imagine we won't see the porch crusher on the west coast for another couple days at least, but definitely curious to hear more from those who got it, general impressions, backstage passages, tickets, golden Willy Wonka scores, listening strategies, etc. My GD scrapbook came with a ticket to a Dec. '94 Oakland show (one that I was at), so not exactly what I'd pick to have handy when I finally get the time machine up and running, but will take what I can get.]

[Second Edit: I do have an unused mail order Greek '88 ticket that I somehow found at the Rockridge BART station one day 15 or 20 years ago, now that's a bit more like it. One of two GD tickets or stubs I've found on the ground far away from any show happening at the time, the other being an MSG '90 stub I found on the sidewalk near the U of O campus in Eugene a few months after that run. Finally, my listening plan is chronological all the way through...]

 

Waiting here in the state of Colorado for my porch to be crushed.