Grateful Dead

I always thought he looked a little like this 1980's Showtime Movie Critic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMyjq4Xm30M

I don't have time to look through the movie and compare and am not finding what I need on YouTube. Is this the guy?

The pissed off guy who wanted royalties if he appeared in the movie called himself Sam Hughes, the Mustache'er called himself John Williams. I always thought he looked like the Showtime guy (Bill Harris, Hollywood Close Up)

Some more old-timers who keep us newcomers honest:
SimonRob, Ziffle, mhammond, Strider88, who am I forgetting??? Oroboros.. who else?

Love encouraging them to come out and tell their tall tales. If too much more time goes by, they might just forget them. I know I am beginning to forget mine.

I'm stoked for this March 24/73 show. Dave Picks 21 from a week later at Boston Garden is near the top of my list in this series. If DaP 32 is similar to DaP 21 then this'll get a lot of play by me.

Don't forget the laughing guy in hat with glasses and mustache disguise, a young OROBOROUS*?

And you are right about Dave's 21, Mr. Charlie62, if the sound quality is anything like this will be an awesome show!

‘Bill Harris’ must be John Williams’ stage name.

Can't wait for this one, the entire 3rd disc is a real face melter. Jerry in ultra fine form, vocals like butter, honey butter, just fantastic, miss you Jerry.

I believe for most GD sources there is usually one common source especially for this show... I could be wrong about this but during 1973 many shows were recorded by Kid Canderlero who really was not a bona fide sound engineer per se.. he simply was assigned or volunteered to take on the responsibility of recording concerts. I also believe during this time it was rather a PA mix / soundboard recording. The GD was one of the 1st rock bands to capitalize on live recordings, Live Dead, Skull and Roses, Europe 72, Steal your Face 74 (which is the worst sounding LP ever produces by the GD), Dead Set, Rekoning, Without a Net; and numerous others. It's astounding to consider how much commercial live material they produced, probably more than any rock band. Off my head, I don't know any other group has released this much on major labels; I'm not counting the Dick's Picks type stuff. If you do count the other formats; the GD certainly have the record. As for most of the recordings, the GD never thought they would be releasing regular old soundboard "document" recordings but they have capitalized that market. They do a great job of restoration for the most part but sometimes you can't make a silk purse out of sow's ear like they say... some of the releases have been sub par in my opinion, April 6th 1982 is a good example ... it wasn't a upgrade at all really.

As for reel sizes, usually it's all from the same sound source or mix. The idea is to never miss a second of music since analog format has a finite amount of space because of tape length. The recordist would have multiple tape machines and would stagger their start times so there was always music captured, sometimes they would even run cassette machines, it's called "interleave" recordings. Now with the advent of digital workstations they can seam different reels with out any real detection of an edit. However, Betty Cantor had her own reel deck on the side as well; like many of us here we believed that she had the actual masters, maybe she did on some shows, but we now know that that's not the case. (Betty Boards were obtained when she had a storage locker that went unpaid and some "collectors" paid off that debt and acquired those tapes ... that's where the infamous Cornell 77 came from)

Overall, the GD have done a great job of marketing their live music and let's face it, some folks believe they have sold out but I will be the 1st to say and admit - that the Grateful Dead's whole scene was a fury of capitalism, right down the grilled cheese sandwiches in the parking lot

If it wasn’t for capitalism, there would not have been people standing outside the venue with a cooler waiting to sell you an ice cold beer as you exited the show.
Those beers were awesome, even though I now think that Sammy Smiths is crap. But they were exactly what I needed after a show. I didn’t start drinking alcohol until after the show, when it was time to slide into the post-show state of mind.

So the "release date" is stated as Friday, Nov. 1.

Does anyone recall whether pkgs -- for the lucky few for whom the system works -- actually show up on that date? Seems I remembered receiving a DaP on the "release date" in the past. (Tho not the last one.)

Stoked to deliver this to my buddy living in the foothills here, without Internet (or women, but that's another story). The old man of the mountain has a monster old-school stereo that delivers WoS type impact.

1973 holds a special place in my heart. Having attended 9-19-72, with Pigpen absent but alive, and the boys still sounding like E72, they turned a corner by early '73 and through evolving musicianship, instruments and sound system, they had a new sound. I got on a roll that year, two months after this show.

In May, I saw the ABB at MSG -- I had a bong under my shirt. Cop stops me. What's that? An older cop tells the younger cop: "That's a bong. Let the kid go." Off we went. I was age 15.

In June we jumped on a ride to DC, caught GD opening for ABB on 6-9-73; the Dead were good, but the ABB stole that one. I swear the extra half-tab to "top off" for the ABB had NOTHING to do with our impressions. But the day had cooled and the purple lights helped. EDIT: Yes, we missed 6-10-73 -- we were 15-year-old kids! No money, no food, due back in school...

End of July '73, we jump on a ride to Watkins Glen and caught the whole two-day enchilada -- the afternoon/evening soundchecks for ABB, The Band and the extra-long evening GD warm-up, lying on sleeping bags in front of the stage, puffing fatties. Woke up the next day, right off snorted mescaline off a mini-cereal box and dropped a blotter as Jer & Co. came onstage at NOON. Etc. We hitched home and 48 hours later decamped to the lovely Roosevelt Stadium for two back-to-back shows with the GD and The Band (and Jer's b-day). Then one GD show at Nassau Coliseum in October. In 1974 I was hitchhiking across the country, turned 17 on the road, ended up in San Francisco in September, when the GD was overseas. I couldn't possibly hang for the October "farewell" shows -- no money, due back in school, had to cover 3,000 miles by thumb, blah blah blah.

1973 ... a fine, welcome vintage. We will crank this one.

Hola HF.

I expect this either leaning against the inside of my mailbox or on the front porch before 11/1. except for the last one, they have been delivered on or before the due date the better part of the last year, year and a half.

Thanks Dr. Jim or Jim in Maryland or whoever you REALLY are........!!

Hope you're right, we've booked Sat, Nov 2, to crank this new one. If it doesn't appear, our fall-back plan is 3-2-69 FW, where the good Mr. Grease delivers a few hot ones. So we'll rock regardless.

I hope that they've worked out the kinks and deliver early or right on time for most everybody. Good luck to our long-suffering bros in Europe.

I did break out 3-28-73 in anticipation and I've been mining the PNW box and, man, that whole year was huge.

I know this is wrong, big time, but I'm already thinking about #33. Though I won't venture a guess as to content. (Okay, it's gonna be 1969...) Though I'm going to go out on a limb and repeat my box prediction for 2020: fall '72. If I keep it up, someday I'll be correct. In fact, if I remember correctly, that's what my ex-wife said to me when she gave me the heave-ho... [rimshot!]

Okay, gents (and I hope a few ladies). Good luck on delivery. This one's gonna rock.

And I thought I was cool at age 15 jumping my BMX bike.
If I took off hitch hiking at that age my parents would have enrolled me in military school.

Thanks for the stories, sounds like fun.
Your shows should be released as a Box - Hendrixfreak’s Travels Box 72/73.
Fully Plangentized and Normanized.

Spring '73. When you finish dosing on DaP 16 & 21, don't forget this old gem, Dick's Picks 28th. IMHO this duo will stand toe-to-toe with just about anything from 1973.

The Dark Star is obvious, but The Greatest Story Ever Told will take you by surprise. The sleeper is The Other One => Eyes of the World from the Salt Lake City show.

February 26, 1973 – Pershing Municipal Auditorium, Lincoln, Nebraska

"The Promised Land" (Chuck Berry) – 3:36
"Loser" (Robert Hunter, Jerry Garcia) – 6:58
"Jack Straw" (Hunter, Bob Weir) – 5:17
"Don't Ease Me In" (traditional, arr. Grateful Dead) – 4:01
"Looks Like Rain" (John Barlow, Weir) – 7:24
"Loose Lucy" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:04
"Beer Barrel Polka" (Lew Brown, Wladimir Timm, Jaromir Vejvoda, Vaclav Zeman) – 1:07
"Big Railroad Blues" (Noah Lewis) – 4:00
"Playing in the Band" (Hunter, Mickey Hart, Weir) – 17:23
"They Love Each Other" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:51
"Big River" (Johnny Cash) – 4:36
"Tennessee Jed" (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:03
"Greatest Story Ever Told" (Hunter, Hart, Weir) – 5:26
"Dark Star" > (Hunter, Garcia, Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Pigpen, Weir) – 25:23
"Eyes of the World" > (Hunter, Garcia) – 19:09[a]
"Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo" (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:00
"Me and My Uncle" (John Phillips) – 3:26
"Not Fade Away" > (Buddy Holly, Norman Petty) – 6:34
"Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" > (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 7:52
"Not Fade Away" (Holly, Petty) – 3:02

****************************************************

February 28, 1973 – Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, Utah

"Cold Rain and Snow" (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 6:30
"Beat it On Down the Line" (Jesse Fuller) – 3:23
"They Love Each Other" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:54
"Mexicali Blues" (Barlow, Weir) – 4:03
"Sugaree" (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:03
"Box of Rain" (Hunter, Lesh) – 5:18
"El Paso" (Marty Robbins) – 4:42
"He's Gone" (Hunter, Garcia) – 12:06
"Jack Straw" (Hunter, Weir) – 4:48
"China Cat Sunflower" > (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:20
"I Know You Rider" (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 5:46
"Big River" (Cash) – 4:26
"Row Jimmy" (Hunter, Garcia) – 8:27
"Truckin'" > (Hunter, Garcia, Lesh, Weir) – 12:02
"The Other One" > (Kreutzmann, Weir) – 15:07
"Eyes of the World" > (Hunter, Garcia) – 17:02
"Morning Dew" (Bonnie Dobson, Tim Rose) – 12:40
"Sugar Magnolia" (Hunter, Weir) – 9:11
"We Bid You Goodnight" (trad., arr. Grateful Dead) – 3:05

Thanks for the kind words, all. I've been having a crap week too.. Darkness Falls and Seasons Change perhaps, in the end there is usually balance. So long as nobody takes me seriously, all is good. I do think we could pretty easily sell a limited and numbered release of 20,000 David Lemieux Bigfoot Hunter action figures. If you order during the subscription period you get the bonus Abel 1/6 scale Steel Your Face flyrod.

I am super stoked for this release though. Guit30, if you are reading this, I think you were there??

Agree completely on Dicks Picks 28. I loved that release when it first came out. That and 18, to me, were the two sleepers that I kept going back to.

.... praising releases is like blowing dandelions. One push and before you know it, favorites are scattered to the wind. The seed is sown.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite era, let alone a favorite release. I do like when folks post references to recent listens, sometimes it provides a reminder about a show I haven't listened to in a while. In particular some of the Dick's Picks get overlooked when I'm picking something to listen to, but there are a wealth of great shows just in that series alone. Combined with all of the Dave's Picks, box sets and individual releases like Sunshine Daydream I have a fairly immense amount of Dead to listen to, which is not to say that I have enough Dead. Although I'm pretty sure my wife thinks that I have quite a bit more than enough.

Deadvikes; one time, Niagra falls 84? I believe, or maybe one of the early 80s chrotchfester shows? So wherever, our crew was on the rail in the front and heavily vegetated, so we wait a few songs to let the band settle in and have a better chance that they’d pay attention to us. So in between songs as their tuning up, having a smoke etc, we put on these day glow goofy ZZ Top like glasses and/or big goofy noses, springy space ball ears etc, and duck down below the wall.....so they start playing again and we wait a bit until we know that their curiosity is peaked and their wondering what the fug we’re doing down there, we’ll all of a sudden the three or four of us jump up with these goofy props and man I don’t know who laughed more, them or us! Lol
I think they appreciated it cause they seemed to smile a lot after that?

Icecrmkid; I couldn’t of said that better, only we were on the hunt foe Sierra Nevada Pale Ales in those days, and of course either the Kind Viggie burrito or the Falafel dudes. Shit, I just made myself really hungry!
But yeah, no drinking until after, liked my dead dirty and my drugs clean!

Senor Hendrixfreak, nice to see ya! I think Jim is on to something......the 72/73 Hendrixfreak tour box with not only extra memorabilia, but those Dave L. Sasquatch dolls with mini matching fishing rods etc as the bonus items for the first10k lucky customers! PROPER!

Peter Tosh or Bob Marley? I dig them both, and it would be really hard to say who I prefer to listen to, but if push came to shove I would have to go with Peter Tosh, just something about his stuff that clicks for me.

Forgot about ole KF; yeah this release is in very high company.....
The Scooby Doo House is a fav, that last disc of 21 is so smooootthh! And Dicks 28 is crazy too. That one really seems to fly under the radar. I’m extra stoked for this one, which makes me worry I’ll be disappointed, like doesn’t live up to the hype, which of course is the problem with hype....
Naaaaaaa, this ones gonna be a Bobbie Dazzler for sure!!

Sounds like our wives think alike.....luckily? Her book addiction is way worse then my music one, and luckily, CDs are much smaller 😀

Bob vs Peter.....JIMMY CLIFF!

Nice twist going with Jimmy Cliff. As far as collections and wives, I am out of luck, my wife is not a collector, whereas I collect everything that I can - books, movies, CD's, plants, knives, tie-dyes, whatever. My wife does smoke those red box Marlboros though, so I am fairly adept at rationalizing my CD purchases by comparing their cost to the (outrageous) cost of a box of smokes these days.

The first time I was at the home of a good friend of my wife’s, this being early 2000s and the second or third time that I had met her, she comes out of the blue asking if I would like to take a look her husband’s porn collection. I nearly spit the deviled egg we were having with our beer all over the black terrier that kept growling and leaping at my sneakers.

“Ummm, boy, uh I, well…. sure….”

She guides me down the hall to a side bedroom, and after a coquettish smile-‘n’-wink, opens the closet door to reveal shelves filled with Grateful Dead releases.

“Ummm, what time did you say your husband gets home, my lady?!?”

This will be the next October 1971 show to be released. I don't know if there's a good version on archive.org, but I imagine there must be considering the bootleg Cellar dweller copy that I have sounds incredible. Another great Dark Star, and it's a 20 + minute episode with no interruptions - very unusual for '71. If that's not enticing enough oh, I'll just add that I've never heard Jerry any louder in the mix than this, and Phil too. Thanks UG.

Fivebranch, I took the bait on that one, nice. Especially the deviled egg and the black Terrier.

Catching up on some posts. Lately I've been writing more of them than reading them. Dark-Star the dude - thanks for the nice words. You should post more and keep the Good Vibes going. Yes I wrote that heady version review of the other one from 1978 Dick's Picks 18. I never know which show the songs are from on that one since I believe it's pulled from three different shows. That's incredible that you picked it out of a crowd Oh, but it was more of a fiction story like the quacking duck Scarlet fire from Tuscaloosa mock interview I did with Jerry. Kudos to you. But I also think I have the number 2112 in that username don't I? Stillgray guess. Haven't been on there in a while oh, that's a great site.

Among my last 5 (or 10? It's been a heady week so far), I offer this.

"Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station!":

https://archive.org/details/gd1968-10-12.sbd.miller.86759.sbeok.flac16

This is it, people. Sheer, unadulterated POWER. No Pig, no TC, no nuthin' but guitars, guitars, guitars and percussion. About as nasty and raunchy as it gets.

Carry On.

Sixtus

Fivebranch.. I had to laugh, but we are venturing into dangerous territory. Like.. if.. you have a perversion to primal dead, does that make you a deadofile?

On second thought.. I had better quit while I am behind.

Sixtus.. A great early show from 1968. Reminds me of the unwrapping party from the 1968 Road Trips. I guess the Lake Tahoe 68 Dicks Picks falls into a similar category. I wish there were more of these. Firecrackers.

Do carry on but be careful.

A Head who derives pleasure from only the digital downloads or ripped copies of CDs on a hard drive. This type of Head finds the boxes and physical media to be a turn-off.

This week's all the years live posting from 10/30/80 i thought was very good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rp-huegwHs

Looks good Sixtus, I'm a sucker for The Eleven. Thanks

Shredded!!
http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/fitness/the-grateful-deads-bob-weir-is-…
:O)

3/21/73 has a tremendous DARK STAR. not released, though.
3/28/73 has a tremendous DARK STAR. released!
3/24/73 has a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeallly _short_ DARK STAR. release approaching.

why not 3/21/73, Dave? why?

and why not 12/18/73, Dick? why?

I haven't heard 3/24/73 in years, so the new release should provide new insights and appreciations of the show.

I myself prefer physical product in regards to boxsets and releases, love holding them in my hands and displaying them for the pieces of art they are

The thing is, I started hitchhiking and backpacking around New England -- that is, Green Mtns of Vermont, White Mtns of New Hampshire and Adirondacks of NY the year prior when I was 14. I'd leave home with a backpack and get back a month later. In '74, I was 'out there' for 2 1/2 months with only one or two calls home. I have no idea what my parents thought, but it's clear my folks did not seriously consider a) trying to stop me, or b) certainly 'punishment' was out of the question. In truth, my dad (who is alive at 90) was a peripatetic world traveler who'd be gone for weeks, sometimes a month at a time. So he clearly was in no position to preach about hanging around the house. Mostly, early on, I traveled in summer when school was out. So what could I have been doing that was "wrong"? Most of it was solo and, early on, when darkness fell and I was alone in the woods -- which really come alive at night, if you've tried it -- I was scared shitless. But I'd fall asleep from being tired of being afraid. After a while, you get over it. So I continue to backpack solo in the much deeper Western wilderness all these years later (1975 onward). Age 14 to age 62, that's 48 years of that activity and 48 years accentuating the experience with psychedelics -- and LOVING IT! Of course, I'd "get experienced" maybe 10-12 times a year in the early days. These days, maybe 3-4x per year. Medicine for the soul, is what I tell my girlfriends. Some can handle it, some cannot. Why would I change a winning formula?

I have a couple of comments.

1) Stoltsfuz, I have never heard the Philadelphia show but I did hear someone say that the jam and the Dark Star all kind of go together. Maybe someone else can confirm. Is this all one Dark Star kind of mixture?

2) dead Tony I am with you. I can't imagine spending all that money on a box set like 30 Trips Around the Sun for a lightning bolt shaped USB drive. It's like the old record days. You brought that thing home. You took it carefully out of its package and handled it gently. Always checked for warps of course that was just part of the game. If you had really good technique you could put one thumb on the edge and your finger in the hole in the middle and hold it up for inspection. And they smelled so good especially if it was a gatefold. Can understand why LPS when by the wayside when CDs came out because the CD had better sound quality to offer. Downloadable files do not have anything I can think of that is redeemable compared to a nice box set of CDs with a book and a scroll. If it was a woman you wouldn't just want to download the picture of her. You would want to give her the record album treatment.

I’ll take the physical product for commercial releases.
Complete shows too, which is why Road Trips initially wasn’t all that appealing.

Downloading is for unofficial releases, which usually don’t sound as good as a commercial release, but allow us to constantly listen to GOGD without getting sick of any particular show or era, and to help us help Dave pick future selections....
Dave......6-14-76

“Dave’s not here”

(knock, knock, knock)

“It’s Dave”

“Dave’s not here”

.............

Sounds like Hendrixfreak has lived a good life.

Love this headyversion review: “Dark Star ‘inside out’. The jam leads into, rather than away from the great theme. 20+ minutes of beauty reaching outward and inwards until it comes back to those mysterious and transitive notes.... Is this the only one like this? Did they ever jam it inside out like this before or after?”

....but my dogs sure do. Fetch!

Dick's 19...10-19-73
Dark Star->
Mind Left Body Jam->
Morning Dew

...a couple days late. Better late than never, eh?

get some
:O)

I love the artwork! One of my top favorite of all the Daves Picks albums artwork so far in this series. A grateful Pick for Daves 32 as well! I’m thrilled head over heals for this last pick of 2019, perfecto release in my opinion. 🙏❤️😎
Rock on my brothers & sisters , and don’t Roget to smile smile smile, life is beautiful it’s love! 🌹💀
* I’m enjoying Daves Pick 4 this morning! I love this Pick as well! Not as slow moving as some 76 is known to do.

I, too, love the physical product that lovingly surrounds the music/CDs. My "Dead-o-FILE" post was a riff on Jim's clever joke about Deadofiles. Music files--computer files . . . Hmmm . . . "files" is an odd word if you say it too many times . . .

..now that I have self diagnosed myself as a deadophile, I was worried I was going to have to put my name on some local offenders list or something.

Looks like I just need faster internet. :D

For what it's worth, I like the Physical Product much better too. I had all the digital downloads and had my machine and two backup drives crash essentially at the same time.. so I lost them all. Now I have mostly mp3 copies where they used to be lossless. First world problems, I know.

That is my biggest fear, I keep thinking I should get a fire/impact proof external. I am not sure I could explain to my wife the reason behind the need of a $1k hard drive.

This guy from XtraNormal can help with that. He gives great advice. "It has a great China>Rider"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfy3uJrfVWo

(I apologize, I know we have all seen this before, but I couldn't resist. It still cracks me up)

Redundancy has it's place. Goes for backing up data as well. Off-site backups a must. BTW, Digital and Physical media advocate here. I wish the media other than music (such as books and ephemera) were digitized as well. They make a fun way to while away time, such as on a plane and not having to bring books everywhere to look at them. The digital 30 trips book is nice.

I have had several hard drives break, but never a CD. Trainwrecked mentioned 30 Trips Around the Sun on hard drive. I think that is way too risky for all that money. And where has dave rock been??

listening to Dicks Picks 23 (9/17/72) today....I think I sometimes overlook this one because of the other great shows that have been released from fall 72 but it's so nice to be reminded of how amazing this show is.

I just cancelled a meeting at work because I'm not done with the monster Other One yet....sorry boss, work will have to wait...

on the subject of physical CDs, I still enjoy them the way I enjoy actual books. I love holding them, I love looking at them. most days I listen to music streamed from my phone or laptop, but I'm not ready to give up the actual physical products just yet.

Hippiechick...I am still here, and check the board every day. Good to see a post from you. My recent Dead and Dead type listening has been the great Daves Picks 3, featuring a couple of October 71 shows, and two Jerry Garcia Band shows a friend passed on to me - "Let it Rock" featuring 17 & 18th November 1975, and "Don't Let Go" featuring 5/21/76. I don't listen to much ( well...any) JGB, so these were a very pleasant surprise. On my soon to hear list is 11/7/71-one of my all time favourites.

But to ne honest, the music that has really blown me away over the last week or so is the Gong box set "Love From Planet Gong". Gong entered my life in 1974, and I've got countless recordings on album, cassette and cd but...Cheeze Louise ...I have never heard them sound as great as they do on the versions of the studio and live shows included in this box. Incredible sound and music - every home should have one.

After my first HD crash I have always backed up drives and backed up the back ups...I have about 6 TB's of MP3's and Apple Lossless for my car on various drives plus about 12 TB's of FLACS and WAV files...I love the physical product in my hand, just like someone else said...but I carry two iPods in my car at all times, one an older 250 gb classic for muisc and the other a newer 160 gb touch that is mainly used for podcasts and audio books...I also use flash drives filled with stuff from my blues and jazz stuff that I usually put on shuffle in the car...

I love this Spectrum show. The whole Spring 73 tour is a monster, followed by a Gila monster in the Fall 1973 shows. If you are interested, you can read a little bit about all 53 Spectrum shows here . The Dead played to virtually one million people there and legend is that every show sold out
http://www.gratefulseconds.com/2019/10/one-million-tickets-sold-for-15-…

So great to read this
Hmm, I hitched from Maine or near Boston (high school) and back to the following shows if I recall right
Colt Park 8-2-76, Palladium NYC 4-30-77, Hartford 5-28-77, up to Ithaca for 11-4/5/6/1977 and after that I was 18 and had friends with cars or moved to Berkeley where I could walk or ride BART

Physical all the way. You can pass em down to your kid or kid's . It's a way of spreading the dead disease. A good disease indeed.

I like both the hard media AND all on HD.
A) I’m old school and like all the “stuff”.
B) if like Jim, it all goes to shit, I can walk over to the shelf and start over again.
C) I of course prefer the freedom and ease of any tune or show available with a couple mouse clicks. I’m also fortunate to have a custom, dedicated music server (YFS-Ref 3), that ripping actually improves the sound of the CD, so there’s that to! Also, I never use any conversion of any kind, always wav. Storage is reasonable enough now and I’m a anal purist. I’ve heard demos on ridiculous system where you can sometimes tell the difference, even with so called lossless conversion.....any conversion is still doing something. Imho the only way to guarantee bit-perfect rips is using wav, but that’s just me and yes I am probably nutz, but the small amount of hassle/costs etc are worth it.
But I think I’m missing something? NCdead said $1K for a HD? Now I’m a dinosaur and not a computer guy at all, but last backup drive I bought was around a hundred bucks for a 3 TB, and that was several years ago? Perhaps he’s got so much stuff etc? Anyway, back up, and even backup the backup. Im so paranoid I don’t even have my backup connected. I connect it only occasionally after I’ve ripped a bunch of stuff. Of course I could lose stuff in the interim, but that’s the beauty of having the hard goods. I may lose the time, but I still have all the music sitting on the shelf...
The “experts” suggest that you keep your backup, or more appropriately your backup, backup at another location in case of fire or other catastrophic event. I haven’t gotten around to that yet but I’m going to. Storage costs have come down so much it’s crazy not too.

Edit; I can totally understand downressing for mobile use etc, but again, that’s the beauty of having the mother drive as pristine and unadulterated as possible. Then you can copy to other drives/sticks for other, more convenient uses...