Hi Chris,

The room ended up bigger than I thought as reg renovation was going on. We had never lived there. I think I need the 800D2, and probably bigger amps. Jerry comes through great, better than I've heard the band. I'm all about quality and could give a rats ass about renaissance and ambiance. I want the BEST sound I can get, and I know I'm very close. The DAC is the first key and through a couple of years of DAC shootouts and endless samples, I know I'm there.

What am I listening to? The entire collection of every recorded Dead show known to the freaker community. There are over sixty shows where they (the freaks) took the best soundboard and then the best audience tape, put a time code on both and then mixed a matrix mix production, removing anything unwanted. It must have taken a couple of weeks just to do one. Google Charlie Miller, the guy is a legend. Some can be obtained from the archive but many came down once GDP relalized there may be some commercial value to the soundboards. Those who were fast got the cheese. 

The actual commercial released from GDP are quite good. Some are REALLY good. But in true GDP form not everything makes sense. They did two box sets (oh, why are you listening to CDs? Forget that, you need a DAC if you want Jerry looking down to you on your couch) from Spring 1990. Six shows are in HD digital and then 8 are in 44.1KHz Cd quality. All were remastered by the same tech. Why do it only halfway?

Since, they have released 2 shows from RFK 1989 (I think). A set of four Giants stadium shows. Four shows from 1977 (including Barton Hall, but the freaker mix is substantially better). and a few others.  

I was going on  enjoying life like most other pedestrians, focused on work doing well, who had an incredible youth on tour with the Dead and then Widespread Panic (167 shows) but saw that I needed to take a career seriously. Then MP3 and Jobs came along and ruined music, I lost interest, it was background noise when I went running. had a receiver at home with some micor B&W towers (and I had serious monoblcks in the 90's). And then around 2010 I heard a remastered reel of Led Zeppelin straight to HD digital (PCM) and it fxxking ripped my head off. What is THAT? I could hear Bonham's foot pedal. I was blown away and started researching what was going on. I work abroad and it took some time to fully understand what was available and how quick I could get it. Then I got ahold of some of these maxtix Dead shows. I had to move from a wonderful 1300 sq ft condo, because I need space and power for my 38 days a year at home. I heard the reality of Phil bombs on these recordings, I need to recreate that, if it was possible...it is. As Phil commented on the Wall of Sound..."it's the voice of God." I'm really close, I get home maybe two more weeks these days and really enjoy a solid 2-3 hour history lesson.

Chris, you need a DAC, ditch the CDs man.

-Ethan

Stellar job, Ethan.

Those blue meters, B&W Diamond tweeters, and Uncle Jerry thrown in? I'm sold!!

Hello Mr. Royale,

Nice rig and dual subs are the way to reality, love it.

Custom McIntosh handles you saw in my photos. There was a message board and McIntosh dealer, Ivan from Massachusetts, making them but has stopped because his machine shop was not consistent.

I have a machine shop that built my glass & aluminum amp racks (to float the amps perfectly over the two REL G2 subs), that can easily do handles.

The only thing I would strongly suggest is to send them the existing side bars. The side bars come off VERY easily, just two recessed screws on each.

My machinist is John Nightingale [email protected] in Virginia. He does great work with any finish possible.

Cheers,

Ethan

Cheers,

Scott

True Archguy, its enough power to weld with....but they are monoblocks....one has to have two...or four, which has crossed my mind.

++++++++++

BTW, the speaker cables are connected to the 4ohm taps, not the 8 ohm and sound best there....a frequent discussion on some boards.