Grate thread! Nice to see so many "friends" here on Audiogon. :)
I, too, prefer the shows from 71-80. I don't think you can wrong with any Dick's/Dave's from that era. I'm not much of fan of anything the band did with Brent- unfortunately those were the only shows I got to see. (Until he passed)
I am definitely an audiophile, but not necessarily when it comes to listening to the Dead. I love Reckoning and own some shows on vinyl but I really love "listening" to the studio albums. They really were/ are special and, in my opinion, under appreciated.
Like many of us, I fell in love with Dead listening to ratty many-Gen cassette tapes- so fidelity isn't of primary importance to me. There is an app (iphone maybe android?) called Relisten. It has every show- often times multiple copies of each show available to stream. It's almost overwhelming. I use it all the time. The best part is, it's free!
FWIW, I also "highly" recommend a band called Forgotten Space to anyone inclined to wanting to experience a great interpretation of the band from the 70's era live. They are based in Dallas but do tours through the central states often. As a matter of fact they will be St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee maybe Indy this month. Forgottenspace.net or on Facebook.