Grateful Dead - Spring 1990 (the Other One)

What's inside:

• 144-page paperback book with essays by Nicholas G. Meriwether and Blair Jackson
• A portfolio with three art prints by Jessica Dessner
• Replica ticket stubs and backstage passes for all eight shows
• 8 complete shows on 23 discs
o 3/14/90 Capital Centre, Landover, MD
o 3/18/90 Civic Center, Hartford, CT
o 3/21/90 Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, Ontario
o 3/25/90 Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY
o 3/28/90 Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY
o 3/29/90 Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY (featuring Branford Marsalis)
o 4/1/90 The Omni, Atlanta, GA
o 4/3/90 The Omni, Atlanta, GA

Recorded by long-time Grateful Dead audio engineer John Cutler
Mixed from the master 24-track analog tapes by Jeffrey Norman at Bob Weir's TRI Studios
Mastered to HDCD specs by David Glasser
Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 9,000

skipped the last 90 box (the first time I did that), opted for the 'summary' release. I may jump on this box...will review more carefully this weekend. But I am disappointed this was this years big release.

With a few exceptions, they largely lost me after early 80's.

Decided to get - boy though, the times they are a changing...with shipping and "SALES TAX"!!! came to $277

For those who don't want the box set, the 3/29/90 Nassau Coliseum show w/ Branford Marsalis is being sold on it's own.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=88794

I ordered this........didn't have to think twice about it.

I received mine yesterday. Awesome.

The sound quality on this show is excellent. One of my favourite post 70's show.

There's also a hi res download version, but it costs a bloody fortune.

I finally got a hold of the 24/88 hi-res edition.

Disappointing.

I wasn't expecting alot musically (IMO the band went seriously downhill in the in the mid 80's), but I had high hopes for the sound.

To start "24/88" is based on the cd standard & the the PCM converted version of the SACD standard. Very little comes out in "88"; as a straight conversion from SACD creates a 24/176 file unless one downsamples to 24/88. (96 & 192 are based on the dvd audio format).

The question here is 88 a downsample of a 176/24 SACD or an upsample of a 16/44 CD?

My GUESS is (for reasons unknown; perhaps to create a smaller file size?), it's a downsample of an SACD format recording.

The #'s are not why I am disappointed. I expected better sound. So far, we really don't have a definitive Live Grateful Dead hi-res release. Probably Sunshine Daydream is the closest, but...........

What I like sonically: good depth & definition, The voices are pretty good other then the sibilance.

What I don't like: It's bright, including significant sibilance in the vocals, & Lesh's bass is especially disappointing. He has a tremendous bass tone, & hi-res should really show this off. So far no hr Dead that I've encountered has done so, & this is probably the worst of the bunch in that regard.

For hard core fans only.

I'd really like to see the original Warner, UA & Arista live albums come out in hi-res, as they did for the studio albums (Europe 72, Skull & Roses, Live/Dead, Steal Your Face (though that one was not well recorded), Reckoning & Dead Set).

The other thing I don't like with this one is Brent's keys are way too high in the mix; in places it doesn't really sound like the Dead to me.