Grateful Dead

Sounds like a great title for the 2024 Box Set. If it came with a small orange shaped barrel candy looking tablet, all the better, but I'd settle for licking the corners of the liner notes.

Now that we got 6-10-73.. It's time to change the date on the wayback machine.

Looks like we have the makings of a restless (not angry, just hungry) mob. We wouldn't want anything to happen to Dave or the Vault, now would we??

I say, cough up the '68 and we'll go easy on you Dave. And we won't be back until we've plucked every last bit of flesh from the bones of the '68 tapes and ... we're ready for early '69. Heh heh heh.........

Hey Doc, I wuz at Aug 1 '73 (and July 31), both shows with The Band. AND only 72 hours from the end of Watkins Glen. We were fry babies BEFORE 7/31 and 8/1. Afterwards? Few memories. One memory of 8/1: a young woman rode on the shoulders of a man to the front and handed a cake up to Garcia onstage. Now, if the band was handing out cake, look out! So I had to wonder at the fate of a cake being handed from fans to the band. (Bomb disposal-type reaction?)

Brilliant ideas for the box: start with a few minutes of Acid Test "music" and move to '66 proto-GD, 3/18/67, fall '67 and blazing '68. The History of Acid Rock, indeed Mr. JimInMD.

Hey, if the we got a huge 20+ CD box set of 1968 material that would be great. When I hope for things like this, I never try to get too greedy as somehow I think that helps the chances of said dream becoming a reality. Yet, I know there is no science to that, so why not go for it all. If we get it in 2024 that would be perfect too. I have a trip planned overseas to Iceland in 2024 and it would be great if a 68 mega box was released prior to my trip. That should help me on the plane flight as know it is a long one.

On a related note, I am heading out soon to an audiologist appointment. I know I am one of the younger commenters here, but I am getting hearing aids. It seems I am getting hit a little early with all of the standard aging ailments - bifocals, balding, high blood pressure, arthritis, and now hearing loss. With the hearing loss, this summer marks likely my last time going to see live concerts as I have to reduce the decibels. So having more Grateful Dead to listen to at home would be great.

Hopefully this contributes to the cause of getting a 68 mega box, can't help for trying.

Was born that year what a great year so '68 mega box I would be Grateful !

WHATEVER is in the vault from '68 and before, PLEASE just stitch it together and get it out!! :) I couldn't care less if it's 37 tracks from 37 different shows (I don't need complete shows anyway, unless they're shows like 6/10/73 . . . ).

Be kind, rewind.

Daves 46 was pushed through my letter box today while I was out scroting around. Number 23808 out of 25000. As I ordered it a la carte, on the day it became available, maybe that suggests it will sell out soon. Think I'll pop it in the cd player - see what it's like.

...for those who do it, it seems it is currently available at Real Gone and assume it will be real gone, quicklike.

Be Well People!
Sixtus

That went fast! 3000 in an hour or two?
Gone by the time of your post.
Oh well, saved $100.
Cheers

Don’t give up the ghost just yet. We used to have these awesome ear protectors that filtered the sound to a safe level.
NOT ear plugs that completely block all sound, but filters that you can still hear the music, just at a lower volume.
BITD we used Norton Sonic 2s, not sure if they still make that specific brand, but they were the ones that worked best back then. They cost like 25 or 30 bucks back then, so not cheap, but shouldn’t be too pricey?
We modified them by putting a tiny piece of duck tape in them since sometimes working with metal or hard rock bands it was still too loud. But I could hear well enough to mix sound with them. It’s different, but you get acclimated to the frequency differences. Usually I’d just go without until I got things eq’d then put them in…
I see there’s all kinds now, so you’ll have to make sure their not just plugs, but sonic filters!

The Acid Box: 66 through 70. The Dead morphed a lot over the years but one could make an argument that they changed more in those 4 or 5 years than the rest combined. So why not give us a glorious, nice historical illustration of that early progression. Yeahhhhhhh, that’s the ticket, “history”, not just we want all the shows lol, no, no, we need to document history, see Dave, now ya gotta do it! History (and HF) demand it, it’s for the little children ; )

It would be awesome if we got a vinyl box of the complete February 13 and 14, 1970 at the Fillmore East.

Feb. '70 recordings are regarded as the best recordings Bear ever made, and according to Dave "has never sounded better".

Now that would be something. It seems to be a direction they are going in, with those May dates in London coming out in a vinyl box - and the Feb-March 69 shows and 7th-9th May 77 shows coming out in a piecemeal fashion.

It looks to me like an additional 2,000 copies of this may one day be made available. The email says in bold type, "Original graphics included…limited to 3000 hand-numbered copies! "

but the real gone website adds the following conflicting detail:

"Only 1,000 Sets are being being put up for sale on our site now. We do not know if more will ever be listed on here again once these 1,000 sell out. Do not wait to buy this set."

Looks to me like another nuance of limited-edition marketing that record companies love to use.

I firmly expect another two thousand to be printed.. the rub will be the timing and the price.

I got an email for Exclusive, Early Bird Sale! Photo in the email has a sticker on it that says "limited to 3000 hand-numbered copies!"

Then Real Gone puts on the website "Only 1,000 Sets are being being put up for sale on our site now. We do not know if more will ever be listed on here again"

It sounds to me like there might be 2000 Sets available maybe on a different site for a small markup?

I think that they will put the October 1974 Winter land shows out as a vinyl box set.

Well, though it may portend ill for future releases, I am glad this did not sell out quickly, as I was two weeks late to the party! Got COVID recently and had some ill after effects and then had a back issue. Getting older, just like the DeadHead populatioin. Though I think the availability of the the bite-sized alternatives and the digital alternatives may have a lot to do with them not selling out. Though both are not new, I think more and more people choose those options.

As for the box itself, fantastic. Kezar and the 6/10 RFK show a like top 25 all-timers in my view. That Kezar tape was a staple of my early collection. As was RFK. I have to say, I cannot think of another run of shows, that have not at least been partially released, that I think can top this one. I mean, October '74 Winterland, April '71 closing of Fillmore East, Alpine '89, and February '70 Fillmore have all had chunks of varying sizes released, as have the '80 Acoustic shows. Those 5 are the only things that could touch this one for me.

And this one having the Allman set included portends well (hopefully) for the release of the full February 1970 (2/11 2/13, 2/14). Lot of parties had to agree to it, and hopefully it will spill over into other releases. Which has only increased my excitement for this release. Sweet!

All three of the Allman's sets are out in a deluxe edition this leaves the door open for a box of all three Feb. '70 Fillmore East Dead sets complete recordings. I can feel it in my bones...

Announcement in July for the 50th Ann. of Bear's Choice.

I really wish that the CD sets included a free Hi Res download. I love having the box set, but even HDCD quality (if you have a player to decode it) is still really, really lossy. Giving the hi res download away with an expensive box set isn't uncommon. In the end, I have to choose, so I will choose the higher quality download, because I spend more time listening than I do reading liner notes.

This is not even a complete show........I don't even know what RealGone Music is........do they just buy old tapes and release them for the smokers.....I stick with the originals and don't mess with Real Gone.

GRATEFUL DEAD: Dick's Picks Vol. 1—Tampa, Florida 12/19/73 (30th Anniversary 4-LP 180-Gram Limited & Hand-Numbered Vinyl Edition)

As per Real Gone Website:

"The remaining copies will go to retail at record stores and online music sellers with a release date of August 4. Retailers should be able to take preorders on or around June 9."

Dick’s Picks Vol. 1, remastered for vinyl by Jeffrey Norman from the original analog tapes for the first time ever (the previous LP release was taken from digital files).

I am so here for it

Box
Bring it on!!

I am very glad that "the powers that be" have included the 3rd st with Dickey Betts & Butch Trucks.
This show was the very first time I went to a rock concert and a Grateful Dead show. I really don't remember too much of this Sunday show other than we were sitting in the stands and had to look left to see the stage. There were so many people there it was amazing and rather hot that day, and I thought "Wave That Flag" was a humorous
quasi-patriotic song and liked it, and still do as US Blues. Truckin' was the song that hooked me to the GD.

In the later 90s, I acquired this show on tape and still have it along with an even better-sounding 4 CD-R set which I acquired in 2008. Both formats are soundboards with some audience patches here and there. I hope this official release of this show has corrected the audio problems by replacing the audience recording patches with the soundboard recordings and the beginning of BIODTL has been correctly fixed.

Really, they should include a copy of the liner notes with a download...

Finally, some early-80's JGB! All the shows I've heard from this era are quite hot, so this release should be a burner! Get some! It's scheduled for release the same day as this box, so can you imagine a moment at the end of June when BOTH releases arrive at your door at the same time?! :)

If 6/18/82 is anything like 6/16/82 then it should be top shelf, if not, then why the hell didn’t they do 6/16/82? Package it with Bobs set like those 89 shows they released…
So far the GarciaLive picks have been solid so stoked for this one.

Go Joe Ryan…we are everywhere!

Brewer, GarciaLive will arrive on the release date. The Dead box will arrive anywhere from 3-10 days after.

1972

Kezar. I knew they would release this one day somehow, someway, and this box with the other inevitable releases in the RFK shows with two more bonkers shows is a fantastic idea. I haven't ordered as yet. About to be moving around release date, and no place as yet, taboot. But should be plenty of these in a couple months with Listen to the River still available. But it looks great, and hugely excited for Kezar as it was one of my first Dead tapes. Somebody threw it in as a bonus in a trade; I believe it was some Duane-era ABB for the Dead and Duane, Berry Oakley, Gregg, Mick Fleetwood, and Peter Green Dark Star> Spanish Jam> Lovelight. I guess the guy wanted to introduce me to more Dead, and he picked a great show, in stellar quality. I've only listened to it a handful of times, because it was on tape, and I started cd trading more and more and I never got that one on cd. Soon it shall be back in the collection, which is actually a collection now and not just Cornell, 2/11/70 chunk, 5/26/73, and Dick's Picks 14.

Sadly, I need to cancel my order of this lovely box... I have been caught in the vortex of customer service emails for about 2 weeks, with promises of help on the way. Not so much. Mary E. are you still out there? Dr. Rhino are you still seeing patients?

Thanks Team!

Hadn't heard this hear previously so may be of interest. According to a post on the Allmans Forum, Bill Levensen, from their organisation, is currently working on mastering the next Allmans archive release which is also to be June 9th/10th 1973. Doesn't say whether it will be both sets in full or a combination of the two or what.

Now if Wet Willie were to do the same . . . .

Sounds good. Hopefully it will be on general release.

Hopefully soon. I'm really excited about this box. Always wanted to hear Kezar in all its glory. We even did a Dead Head TV feature on Kezar, I'll be releasing it soon. I love 73 and 74, that's my fav years, although I love all the years, such an incredible band!

Ok a girl can dream lol.
It would certainly be nice to have for long fourth holidaze…
Whatevs, as long as it arrives…

but the ABB on the evening of 6/9 was formidable. If that's an upcoming release, then I'm on it like white on rice.

I’m stoked for this one. That said I’ve had a lot of skippy discs on box sets and Dave’s picks so praying for problem free box. Peace

Wharfrat - I haven't had any with that problem, although it has occurred with non Dead discs. My hi fi has good taste-ha!
But it was pointed out to me when I got a new telly set up last December, that although my cd/record players are only a few years old, my amplifier is more like 20 years old. The technician who set up my telly, said that this meant the amp didn't always read discs as efficiently as it had done originally-which I think could be why certain discs - and nearly all burned discs - don't always play okay. For example -starting at track 2 instead of 1, registering a disc as "empty" - then after a few tries playing okay.
I just wondered if this could be why some of your discs skip.

@DAVE ROCK Thanks for the info!

CD players need to be cleaned every few years depending on how dusty it is where it sits. I have a mid 90s Kenwood disc changer that just wouldn't read certain discs and skipped on others. I put it aside and bought a replacement which worked fine. Then I read up on how to clean the laser optical lens and gave it a try as I wanted to put the Kenwood back in service in a second system. It required some disassembly that looked difficult but was not after I got in there. Cotton swab dipped in eyeglass cleaner and done. Works perfectly and all my CDs play perfectly now. Even those with light scratches on them from when I used to play them in the car. (The little dust catcher on my old car player where the CD goes in is the scratchy thing. I don't play CDs in the car anymore anyway.) May even be a video tutorial on utube on your model or close enough to help. All my stuff is analog but I know my "amp" does not read anything, it just amplifies what it is given. Funny thing is I like the sound of my cheap replacement CD player better. I think just being newer it has superior digital technology like how many times oversampling or whatnot. Still want an HDCD player for the big system someday but they both work so I'll just keep on truckin'. Good luck! P.S. I tried a CD cleaning disc, even with fluid, many times over the years and it didn't do anything. From what I read they are damaging to the lens so don't bother with one of those. Do a proper job. P.P.S. Some say the cotton swab may leave fibers but I did not have an issue.
Cheers

Yep, the optical reader could just need a cleaning via Istshows fine intel, or, it could be starting to fail.
First I would try to play discs in good shape that you’ve had problems with using different players.
If the problems migrate with the different players, you may have disc problems, if not, it’s your player…
Yeah, guessing something lost in translation but analog amplifiers only do one thing: they take a low level single, and well they amplify it lol. Now if by amp you mean some kind of receiver or AVR (audio video receiver) their probably is a digital input section/DAC (digital audio converter), but if there was a problem it would just not work, it would have nothing to do with reading the discs…again, I’d say try another player with the pesky discs and if they play ok then perhaps try to clean your optics.
Maybe what your describing is not the disc? If not, try different cables. If there ok then try another input on your preamp or receiver, sometimes inputs go bad or get funky…

1stshow: most likely you’ve nailed the difference in the players. 90s is a lifetime ago as far as digital tech goes.
My first CD player back in 86 was the 2nd down from top shelf Sony ES players. Cost mucho 1986 dineros, and I loved that player, had cool functions etc. In the early oughts it started to have read/optic problems so I took it to our trusty tech at the high end shop I used to go to. They said besides the cost to fix it, it wasn’t worth it because the optics and processing tech was already so far advanced i wouldn’t want to fix it….

Love to hear what you guys find out…

PS, some discs just don’t play nice with certain players. No problems with disc or player, just sometimes they don’t like each other. Again, recommend trying out pesky discs on other players. FYI, you can always pop em in your DVD or Blu-ray player as many will play CDs (look for the CD icon somewhere on the player) current, often lower price ones may not? If need be, take some of the questionable discs to a friends and try…

Oh, another friendly tip. Keep the dust away from all electronics. Second worst thing for em besides water, ahem…
When dust builds up, it traps and causes more heat, not good for your toys! Then, more heat attracts more dust, and becomes a vicious circle, not unlike the Oroboros lol
Also, let ‘em breath, don’t stack things that get hot on top of each other as it will shorten life span, or worse.
This is especially true of any micro processors!!! Old analog gear that was engineered well might be more tolerant, but modern gear, especially with any chips, will not do well with excessive heat.

While I completely agree with equipment cleaning and maintenance to facilitate my favorite pastime I will say my issue is likely bad discs. They skip on the same songs consistently. It’s all good though. The biggest one was the PNW box where 2-3 discs skipped. Rhino helped me out. My last Dave’s skips on the last track of the final disc. The music never stops!

My Onkyo 6-disc changer started having drop outs in random spots. I would rewind and play again and the drop out was not there. So I think it was an electronics issue and not dust. Replaced the Onkyo with a Cambridge Audio and the CD’s played fine and even sounded better.

I have CD’s from a variety of bands where the CD’s play fine on both the Onkyo and the Cambridge Audio players, but a good copy cannot be made to a hard drive. Redoing it with the same burner, or doing it on another computer with a different burner, still gives a copy with skips, but the skips are in different locations.
This was the case with Road Trips Fall 77 + bonus disc (which I only got a few years ago). I had to copy the discs 5 times using 3 different computers and burners in order to get a single version on a music player that didn’t have skips.

The only defective CD I ever got from Rhino was CD3 of 6-17-76, which Rhino acknowledged was defective and sent out defective replacements, then again sent out replacements which were fixed.

If you store your CD’s in a hot car you should expect that they will eventually start to degrade. And the slot opening of car CD players can scuff up the disc. When I previously had a car with a CD player I made CD-R copies of my CD’s and stored the CD-R’s in the car.

I put copies of all my GD releases on a music player and don’t continue spinning the CD’s once a good copy is on the music player. The GD releases are then stored in crates, protected from dust and dog drool.

Interesting messages about hi fi maintenance. I am a real luddite when it come to technology. One of my friends recently suggested I try switching it off and on at the mains. That's about my level, I'm afraid.

Apart from one cd from a 1976 Daves Picks, all mine have played well. And the ones in boxes.The ones that don't play so well are ones I have had for a while, and they always seem to play on my very cheap portable player if not my hi fi. So it seems that it's the hi fi that is at fault.
The worst experience has been a T.Rex box set. A lot of people complained about these discs on Amazon, but mine played alright. That was last year. This year none of them will play.

My front room can be a bit dusty - I have an open, and unused fireplace not too far from my hi fi. I keep it well dusted and have even taken to putting an old tee shirt on the system to keep the gremlins out. I think for me that could be a problem - that and the age and mismatch of my amplifier with the new stuff. I said earlier it was 20 years old-nearer 27, when I think about it .

Not only this - I now need a new stylus. The last time I got one, the guy from the shop came to my house to attach it. His assistant came first, and he couldn't do it - so the owner of the shop came out and fitted it. Don't know how I am going to get the darn thing in place on my own. It was never a problem in the 70'-80's.

My older DaPs are physically peeling. For me it's the discs, not the player(s). YMMV

Lesson: Check and Rip your discs immediately. -edit- And....Do NOT store them in a hot car...Slaps Head (thank God I followed my own ripping advice) :-) :-) :-)¯

I always rip them to my server immediately out of the package, then put them back and on the shelf.
I used to also make a CD back up copy, but I’ve not been lately.
As far as I can recall, I’ve only had problems with the music only Boxilla.
I had a Hellava time ripping some of those discs. I think I eventually got them all, but some took hours to rip.
Considering what that box cost, it was a stressful unpleasant experience.

DR: your amp shouldn’t be a problem. Sounds perhaps like a sales pitch?
A good analog amplifier can last decades, and should have nothing to do with discs being troublesome.
Speakers and amplifiers if well built, do not need to be upgraded unless you don’t like how they sound, or obviously if they break.
All an amplifier does is take the final, processed signal if you will, which is always eventually analog, and which is very low level, and amplifies it so it can drive the speakers. It just takes a very low level signal, and makes it loud, that’s all.
Now this is a separate amplifier I’m speaking of, if you have an “all in one”, or receiver, those have a pre amp and often a digital processor, along with an amplifier, all in one box.
If so, they might be talking about the front end or pre amp/processing section, but the amplifier is still just an amp like described above, it’s just lives in the same box.
I’m curious what kind of cable or connection you have with your CD player?
Actually, I’m curious about your whole set up…

Hey Oro-sorry it's taken me a while to respond to your post. This is where I show my ignorance - more than usual. I don't actually know what kind of cables I've got. When I bought my cd player, a guy from the shop came to set it up for me, and he brought these cables with him.
This cd player, it was 2019 when I got it, is a Rega Saturn - R. The amplifier, which I got about 1997 has "Isobel 50 W solid state integrated amplifier" printed on the top.
I bought the speakers in 1997 too. I can't remember what make they are!
My record player is a pro ject, and I got that about 2018.

So, a very random approach. Both the cd player and the records sound great to me though. The last Dead I played was from the PNW box - 5/17/74. A really sparkling sound-especially that of Jerry and Keith.

I got the idea that my amplifier might not be a bit antiquated when I bought an Oled telly and blu ray player last year. For some reason, I couldn't get the sound to come out of my speakers, despite the fact that it was wired up to do so. Three people came out from the shop - and the last one managed to get it to work. I don't know what he did, but he said that because the amp was made in a way that they no longer make 'em, it couldn't pick up the signal from the tv/blu ray. He tinkered about with it ( getting a it technical here) and hey presto! Sound!

The other thing is, when I listen to a cd - say track 3, the display panel still shows track 2 until a few seconds after track3 has started playing. This engineer who sorted it out told me that the delay was due to the amp being as old and different as it is, and that it took time to pick up the signal from the cd player. I really don't know whether what he said was correct or not.

It's a pity you don't live down the road, really, so you could pop in and have a look. What do you mean "thank God for small mercies"!

So far all of the CDs I've purchased since the 1980s still work fine. I rip all mine and keep them stored. Some discs I bring to play in the car, but never the limited edition ones.

Hey amigo,
Sorry for being so tardy, been busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.
I did look up your amp and it’s an integrated analog only unit. The “integrated”means it’s has both the pre amp section, and the power amp section all in one box. From looking at the back of the unit from a photo of one for sale, it appears it’s analog only. Sorry I just haven’t had time to look up specs etc.
I’m wondering now what make and model tv you have? I’m guessing they were trying to back feed the audio from the tv to your integrated amp. Depending on years and models etc, that could be via an analog out of the tv, or optical, which is a digital connection. Like most things, to maximize profits, analog connections are often going away…

Since your amp is all analog, it does not have a a digital section or DAC (digital to analog converter) so i would think it would have to be the former: your amp cannot connect directly to a digital source, unless it has its own DAC, which is what your CD player is doing. This is why they commented on age of the unit, not because it’s no longer usable!

The tech probably just had to adjust some audio settings in the TV in order to output analog audio back to your amp.
I’m not sure why they didn’t just follow suite with your cable box and Blu-ray player and run analog out of those units and into your amp like your CD player? Perhaps sync/delay issues? Sometimes the audio and video can get slightly out of sync when utilizing different paths depending on electronics?
The switching would be an extra step but the sound would probably be better, (as long as no sync issues) though perhaps your cable or Sat box doesn’t have any analog outs. It’s unfortunately becoming more common to only have an HDMI video output?
A increasingly more common approach to a basic TV set up is to run your sources into the tv via HDMI, and back feed audio via ARC (audio return channel via HDMI) but that requires a tv and receiver or integrated amp that supports it. This is mostly for cost and convenience so you only have to switch TV inputs and have all the video audio on one input channel of your amp. But I could walk you through wiring your video source audio direct to your amp if your interested, and depending on what kind of outputs your sources have: HDMI only or with something else i.e., optical, coax, or analog etc.
To find out, just look at the back of your Cable or Sat box and your Blu-ray player: outputs should be labeled, but if not, you can tell by looking. RCA analog connections are what’s on the back of your integrated amp. If you see some that look like these your all set. If besides HDMI there is only optical or coax, your out of luck (digital coax is usually an orange color, at least in the states? Analog RCA are usually Red for right, and white for left). Many will only have HDMI.

The good news is I don’t see any reason why you need to upgrade your amp if you like it and don’t want to!
Perhaps the next best upgrade you could make if you kept the amp, would be to get an asynchronous DAC.
That way you could utilize all your digital connections on your various digital sources, routing them into the DAC for conversion, with just one analog out of the DAC to your amp. You’d leave the amp on the same input (except turntable which being analog already would still go to directly the amps phono stage (though you could upgrade to a separate one of those also). You would do the switching of sources on the DAC instead of the amp.
But you don’t have to do this, it would just be a nice upgrade as the DAC chip sets in most things are cheap garbage, especially TVs!! Your CD players DAC is probably at least decent?
Right now, it sounds like your video sources are being converted in your tv, no bueno!
The DACs they use in TVs and computers, and most lower cost electronics cost less than a dollar, a good separate DAC can range from a hundred dollars up to a hundred grand, so obviously something made to do a specific job should be an improvement over doing it the cheapest way possible…
Another option if you do think about replacing the amp is to get a new integrated amp with digital inputs, though they might not do HDMI. Some now are utilizing the ARC technology I mentioned above. A good integrated should have a decent DAC so you could use whatever digital output your tv has to back feed from tv to the DAC, or run separate audio from the source to the DAC, and video to the tv, leaving the cheap tv electronics out of the audio chain.

Similar, and most convenient would be a new AVR or Audio Video receiver. These usually have HDMI and analog inputs so you can run all your video sources into it with one HDMI video out to your Telly. You could run your CD digital or analog to it depending on the AVRs capabilities and preferences. You would have to make sure it has the correct phono stage for your turntable, or get a separate phono stage. AVRs, unless super high end, are usually not going to have as good components/electronics as a good integrated amp, or perhaps even a good DAC with your existing amp? Their designed for switching, convenience, a Jack of all trades but master of none if you will.
Also, their more for surround sound etc, and I believe you have 2 channel so it would probably be money better spent on gear tailored more for your needs…but it’s a viable option…

LOL, Yes, I wish I did live down the street, after I tweeked your system, we could go have a pint and play verbal tennis about our favorite bands etc. AND, I have a pre-pro that’d I could sell ya cheap that would probably solve your issues, Dooaahh!

Still not quite sure what they ment about your amp effecting your CDs/player? It makes no sense?
I have seen units that might have some brief latency between the audio and display, but that has nothing to do with what it’s connected to. I’m not sure of any audio gear that depends on everything in the chain “talking” to each other, only HDMI. Though not common there theoretically could be an all HDMI audio chain, but even then I’m not sure there’d be the same “handshake” issues that occur with HDMI video?

Ok, sorry, that’s too much at once I suspect?
Get me more intel and I’ll follow up with you.
- what make/model TV do you have!
- list all your video sources?
- what kind of outputs does your Cable or Sat box, or other video sources have? (Please see above for instructions)
- what is more important to you, maximizing audio, or convenience and ease of operations?

I hope to have at least a little time this WE so if you can get back to me I might be able to figure more out.

Sorry to rest for going on, hey, once a geek…
besides, y’all can perhaps learn something from my tutorials that will help you maximize your GOGD audio nirvana!
Hey, Who wouldn’t want to experience the most of all the plangent aural ecstasy lovingly provided by the likes of Norman and Glasser ; )

That discussion helped me figure some things out too.
Vaguely thinking about having the TV sound through the big system.
You are The Man on this subject. Don't need an electrician.
Cheers and thanks!

Let me know what gear your trying to integrate and I can look it up and make suggestions if you like?