Jerry Garcia’s McIntosh amp

This has indeed been a fun and informative discussion. A big thanks and a big hug to everyone who participated. What a long strange trip it’s been :)

Too bad their recording quality is not so good.  Eg.  Terrapin station album amazing, but recording seems poor, soooo sad.

But we have so many good concerts to listen to and watch on YouTube and to listen on RELISTEN. Jerry left us with a wealth of beautiful music and he will forever be remembered. 

Agree about the early ‘70’s. 1970 and ‘71 have some darn clear sounding recordings. I so wish it didn’t take the crew almost 6 months after Bear went to jail to get it together and start recording without him or we’d have more from ‘71. And yep, ‘73 and ‘74 are distinct. Clear, bold and up close sounding.
There are certainly better sources than others for some shows and limited with others but far from all poor sounding. If one isn’t used to audience or raw soundboards then stick to the officially mastered multitrack release. We’re not talking Chesky here, but darn good for what they are... All ya need for the Dead is a linear balanced system with good organic flow and the music will do its magic regardless of recording quality (to an extent).

rh67 - there was definitely a time the band used Phase Linear amplifiers, unfortunately it’s simply not well documented.  I for one would love to see some pics just out of curiosity.

Really, there isn’t much to “claim” when there are literally thousands of photos to support just a google query away.  AudioKarma must have ten threads devoted to the Dead’s setups and in at least one of those threads is a gentleman who also spent time with the band.

FWIW, neither he or Bear had much good to say about the McIntosh power amps.