I’m listening on Audioquest Nighthawks (the previous model from what they currently have). I also have Sennheiser HD380pros that I’ve had for about 10 years, which I took into an audio shop and compared against the Nighthawks and a pair of Master and Dynamic MH40s. I thought the Nighthawks sounded the best of those 3, with the Sennheisers taking 2nd place (they all sounded good but I thought the M&Ds had a bit of a chewiness in the bass that I felt interfered with the overall clarity). However, I didn’t think the Nighthawks sounded $400+ better than the Sennheisers so I didn’t get them until three months later when they were marked down to about 50% off when Audioquest released the new version of them (Nighthawk Carbon?). I’ve never heard any Grados, though.
I like the Audio Technica line of headphones. I have the ATH-A700 cans, but have thought about moving up the line many times. The wing-style headgear is very comfortable for long listening sessions.
@warewolf95 I'm a bit slow on the 91 now, as I'm getting into September 1970 and can see the end of the road there, and I'm just a few shows away from Egypt (listening to 7-1-78 now,) but I did catch 4-5-91, which was a really great show. I was going to write in an earlier review that by 91 they kind of had their routine down, they were beyond pros after 25 years of touring. (Of course, that makes it sound like you could plot their trajectory on a line, which you really can't, there were so many variables and changes of course. ) But there is kind a line running from 87-9? where just knowing their ruts carried them along even when they were not incredibly inspired, and helped them be so much the more when they were. What I'm remembering I liked about 91 shows was in evidence on this tape - Solid first set with some great soloing, especially Garcia and Hornsby, as well as some irritating MIDI and dated keyboard sounds. By this point the Dylan songs are really in their form. I like Iko Iko, and Hornsby's accordion adds some authenticity, Saint I can take or leave, and this rendition of Terrapin did not grab me (I'm realizing this may be the iconic GD tune I'm least on board with, or at least the one I most require to be just exactly perfect.) But the Stir it Up jam was very nicely textured, and young Mr. wolf probably doesn't realize this, but I thought it was very cool how they kept that groove going throughout Drums for a while before changing it up into more free form playing. The Other One that builds out of space reminded me of the last Dark Star they did on 4-1. They're playing a bunch of different polyphonic strands, most of them partaking of the Other One in at least a tangential way, until the chaos builds and breaks into the song. I got the sensation of watching a storm coming over the horizon. The rest of the set is all top notch, especially Throwing Stones, and Quinn the Eskimo continues the aforementioned trend of excellent Dylan tunes.
7-1-78 - what a great show this was - Bertha>Good Lovin' was a high energy opener as usual, and Jack Straw and Friend of the Devil solid mid-set options. Cowboy polkas were probably in abundant supply on that day, though Waylan and Willie might not have done the disco version. The real story for me was the Playin>Drums>Space>Estimated>Other One>Wharf Rat>Around and Around. That promises to be a killer segment when done right, and on this one its done right and then some. The jam out of Playin and the Space>Estimated portions rivals a lot of what they did in their salad years. I was on Heady Version earlier and the 8-27-72 Dark Star is on the top of their Dark Star list by ~100 votes, with 254. Also the July 78 box set is not sold out yet.
I have the Grado 80e ... obviously much lower in the model range, although Grado tends to use the same drivers across multiple models. If you’re coming to headphones for domestic listening without a lot of background, Grados can be rough because they are tuned to be quite forward and in-yer-face; they're also spartan of design and not the most comfortable, being on-ear. For your purposes, I wouldn’t recommend them, although if you get into the headphone hobby having at least one Grado pair is pretty much obligatory. What you need for listening at home, where leakage and portability do not matter, is a good workhorse headphone such as the mid-range Sennheisers (580-650 ... which I don’t own) or the AKG K701/Q701s. These are around-ear, open-backed, comfrtable and entry-level audiophile. (I own the K701 and it's a lot of headphone for the money, so that's my recommendation if you want it.) If you need them for travel, the Bose are a good alternative, though those have a flattered upper-bass. Don't buy for travel unless you genuinely need them for travel.
Listening right now. Very decent sounding AUD recording from almost 50 years ago. Fininshing up "Lovelight" now. Cool riffing on the St Stephen theme. Also a bit of China cat thrown in for good meassure
I believe there was some 'darkness darkness' in there too. At least, that's what I wrote in my notes, I haven't heard the new source yet.
31 December 1972- Winterland. SBD > Master Reel > DAT > Your Ears - first time in circulation. All prior versions have been labeled Pre-FM reels. At the usual place, courtesy of the usual suspects.
Different mix for the 2 sources, the pure SBD is a bit “cleaner”, not totally sure yet which I prefer.
It is cleaner, I'll be interested in your thoughts about the whole thing. I am not able to do a comparison today.
Both the complete pre-FM source and the new composite need some remastering, so it will be a bit before I can really compare (I had already remastered the pre-FM source in the past, so it sounds better right now)
I know it's crazy to say but with the last few "new" sources to come out I've just held onto my "Bertha Remaster" pre-fm. I usually stray away from his remasters but everything else has sounded dull in comparison
First good shows of the tour?! The entire year had been on a base level of excellent til then. Absolutely Bruce kicks it up 10 notches but none of the previois shows were in any way substandard in my personal opinion. Fight me, braj Youre not wrong at all though that Bruces return just skyrocketed things. 3 31 and 4 01 are 2 of the shows of the yeae imo and the standard remains at least through the Atlanta run. A+ post of the kind i dream about writing. When i write i kind of just word vomit. Love Quinn. Glad they pulled it out. I thought that Terrapin was sick. The song itself not so much byt the massive jam blew my mind.
Generally not, I usually do too much editing as part of the process. You might check out my remaster of Bob Wagner’s 12/19/78 AUD (on the archive); great show and very nice recording.
Not crazy at all, but in this case I think the new source potentially can sound better, although probably not by much.
I’m in the middle of 5/11/78 and it is clear to me that Bear’s recording of the previous night is superior as is the performance by a fairly wide margin. The usually great Jerry solo in Tennessee Jed never takes off. Highlights of the first set would be the opening Cold Rain & Snow, parts of FOTD after a lackluster sloppy beginning, a nice oblique solo in Loser, strong Jerry in Minglewood and a bit of energy generated in the Supplication jam. Scarlet to open set 2 is fine but the craziness during the short Fire makes me feel like that the boys were so high they were incapable of anything but craziness. I mean 30 minutes to get to a 20 minute drum section. I know the night before was about 38 minutes but 25 of it was a great Estimated>Eyes and they came out of that night’s long drums with an otherworldly Other One followed by a great Wharf Rat and a fiery Sugar Magnolia to end the show. So both short second sets by previous year's standards. Maybe I’m also slanted against 5/11 since I’m not a big Stella Blue fan and 2 Chuck Berry tunes after drums is about 1-1/2 too many.
Sending all the good thoughts and vibes I can muster in your direction. I'm hoping your back groovin' with the family soon!
This is exactly the kind of random Grateful Dead fact that I enjoy so much and the reason I love this thread. Thanks!
Hitting the ol' random show button on Relisten last night took me back to Merriweather Post Pavilion back on July 27, 1984. So I spent this morning starting in on the Charlie Miller SBD transfer, always interested to hear something from years I haven't spent much time in. I only made it through the first part of the first set on this morning's commute, but it already sounded better than I expected. The opening 1-2 punch of "Jack Straw" and "FOTD" was pretty great, enough so that the inevitable "Little Red Rooster" didn't bring me down all that much. Follow it up with a nice "Cumberland" and "My Brother Esau" and there's nothing to sneeze at here. Looking forward to jumping back in later.
