New Grateful Dead July 1978 box set*

Oh, I play SACD from time to time and blu-rays but that's it

 

I'm relatively late getting on the bus but I'm definitely a passenger now. The Chuck box will always be my favorite too, being the first I bought as it was released and also sharing the excitement with Chuck as the due date got closer and closer. Strangely I didn't pay much attention to 1978 until I heard Dick's #25. I'd seen it for a long time but never bothered for some reason. And that's really the one that turned me around. Also enjoyed Dave's #7, the Ramble On Rose is just so beautiful. Whoever said they were there, I'm pretty jealous. As for the box, I found all the shows to be rewarding with Omaha my favorite. The sound is off initially but as soon as it's dialed in they take off like a rocket.

 

Could you give us your opinion about the liner notes, so @Six Bachelors can decide whether to pull the trigger or not?

 

Me, me, me.

 

Liner notes: meh. They didn't add anything to my experience. I've already bought the box, so liner notes that are 50% sales pitch are missing the mark. The artwork is nice, but I wouldn't think that would be enough to justify buying the physical box if one already bought the digital download.

Music: I've only listened to the first 3 shows so far. Omaha is by far the stand-out show of the first 3, although I do find it hard to stay engaged after 10 minutes of Drums. Based on the increase in quality through the first 3 shows, I'm looking forward to the next two.

 

Nor do I. I collect music, not files.

 

Digital files on a compact disc or a hard drive. It's all music

 

I played all of this when the set came out last May and loved all of the shows, especially the July 3 show (one of the best Scarlet>Fire) and both of the Red Rock shows (NFA from July 7, Eyes from July 8). I haven't heard a lot of it since then, I wish I had more time to listen to things like this.

 

I thought the liner notes by Merriweather were pretty good, although I think one of our members who was on that tour had some quibbles with them. I definitely prefer it when he or Steve Silberman of Blair Jackson get the nod to the notes, especially Silberman and Jackson who were attending shows for much of the band's career, and between the two of them I think Silberman's got probably the better critical perspective whereas Jackson is a bit more of a "homer", to put it in baseball TV announcer terms. I thought the packaging was terrific. I can't say what my favorite show is, I did two full passes through the box last year and came out differently both times, but can say that both times I liked 7/7/78 overall better than it's more famous sibling, which was the only show in the box I knew beforehand.

With the GD, I almost always play the actual CDs, in order to get the most out of the HDCD. I tend do more of my listening either on vinyl or digital than CD these days, but prefer to have the physical CDs. If they are just regular CDs, my outboard DAC from the computer with lossless files has better sound than my Oppo's built in DAC, so that is the best way to go. But HDCD, SACD, DVD-A, Blu-Rays, etc. go into the Oppo.

 

Will a FLAC rip of a SACD not sound as good as the actual disc?

 

Thanks for the replies about the liner notes. Sounds like it's touch and go...probably not a sensible investment right now.

As for those of you ripping the discs and never touching them again...why not just get the downloads in the first place, where available? 24 bit and 192 khz, which far exceeds the potential of the HDCD encoding. Whether or not they make the most of it is another thing but these are some damn dynamic and detailed recordings. I can't imagine that the CDs sound quite as good as the hi-rez.

 

You might already know this @Crispy Rob but in case not and if it would help... I understand with a pc, not mac, and the right software/converter, you can decode a file rip of an hdcd so that the file will then play with those hdcd benefits on any dac.

 

Yes I suppose HDCD is just trying to get to 24 bits anyway and can't quite make it. Also Norman uses a small amount of compression on the cds but not the hi res files.

 

I can sell the box if I want. Simple as that

 

Thanks, problem with that is I'm a Mac person.

 

Would you delete the rips you have made if you sold the box?

 

Same with me. I've considered getting a cheapo pc for the sole purpose of banging this job out but alas always put it off out of shear laziness. The same goes for the whole boot camp thing which I'd probably f up.

 

They seemed spent in 78. You can hear the cocaine in the performances.

But hey, I really like 82 so what do I know?

 

Of course not. It's my files to do whatever I want with

 

Not really, no. If you rip the contents of the box then sell the box but keep the rips, you're getting the contents of the box for free. I should think that any legal reading of the situation is that that constitutes piracy or at least stealing.

 

How is he getting the contents for free? He originally bought the box set, and part of physical ownership entitles the owner to upload and rip the music files. If the owner later chooses to sell the physical product, all the benefits of his prior ownership do not necessarily transfer to the new owner.

 

How? By buying the product, making a fascimile of it and selling it, leaving him with the equivalent of the product even though he has sold it. It's like buying a book, photocopying it then selling the book.

I have been resoundly criticised on a Grateful Dead thread on this forum before when I joked that I would rip all of my Road Trips and bonus discs and sell them. People thought I was being serious but I was joking. Their point was valid though - you can't maintain your access to the intellectual property indefinitely just because you once owned the physical item on which the intellectual property was stored.

Legal-ish stuff aside, it's not exactly squeaky clean on a moral level. One could buy the entire Dead catalogue of CDs, rip them then sell them, leaving one with all of the music for nothing or even at a profit, if you happen to make some money on the sales. You're telling me that's OK?

 

Guys - c'mon! This again?

 

This is a Grateful Dead thread, let's leave all those crappy arguments for some other bands, lads.

 

Besides...
"There's nothing you can hold
For very long"
Stella Blue