Grateful Dead

They all sound great but it makes me realize how much better the band sounds live.

I am so glad these are only their studio albums, I love audiophile music and If this had stuff like Europe 72 on it, I would be tempted, plus these Albums have already been released in HDCD CD anyway, which sound grate, plus I hate stuff that you have to download.

These remasters are truly stunning. They faithfully retain the original qualities, but with so much more depth and resolution. From an audio perspective they are a large step ahead of anything released in the last several years, even HDCD releases. David Glasser nailed these ones, both new and old.

I suppose it's the future (which will leave me behind). Downloads for those who want them ...absolutely. But those of us who like physical formats are left out of what is surely something to be beautiful. Why they couldn't be available in SACD is beyond me. And no even though there are few releases SACDs are still being released. I have the 2 DVD-A Workingman's & Beauty and they are wonderful . SACDs of the Studios would have been great. Hope they don't eventually go this route for everything

I missed the chance when the sold a surround copies of american beauty and working man in the almanac many moons ago. Wouldn't want it on sacd because not all cd player can handle that formats. I have seen a lot of dvd audio out lately and it's a cool concept if it's linked to archive pictures from that period as well.

All the CDs from dead net I bought was HDCD but I have no CD player with HDCD decoder, I looked around but found none! That is because of Microsoft bought the license and leave it alone. I know the Grateful dead crew has been trying to offer the best quality sound in CD format with HDCD codec but it is out of fashion now. So they have to change their mind now! I think The grateful dead store should stop selling HDCDs and start to selling digital media in the highest available resolution, I say HIGHEST AVAILABLE RESOLUSION! I found HDtrucks offers 192kHz/24bit for complete studio albumss but that is not enough i want more. I do not need studio albums in high-res but all I want is their live performance! All the Dick's picks and Dave's picks in highest available resolution I am ready to spend thousands of dollars do you hear me the grateful dead store!?

Hi 123takeastepback, I really don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but here an article you should read. It's long, but you should read it in its entirely (link below). Then watch the video that does a good job of explaining SHOWING how digital audio works (the second link) http://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html http://xiph.org/video/vid2.shtml You should note that not only is the info in both of those links correct (you can learn more at MIT's OpenCourseware about digital audio), but there is another thing you haven't considered. The SOURCE of the LIVE music you are asking for was recorded almost exclusively to reel-reel analog tape. In absolutely ideal, pristine conditions, analog reel-to-reel tape, due to it's signal to noise ratio, is the equivalent of a 13-bit digital audio file. You can NEVER get what is not in the SOURCE to begin with. It's like taking an old television show recorded in standard definition of the time, and expecting to get more "resolution" from it in a high-definition format. Not going to happen. You will NEVER get better than 13-bits of dynamic range from a reel-to-reel analog source, whether you fill it up to 16, 20, or 24 bits - doesn't matter. As far as the sampling frequency is concerned, although the video DOES mention this, they go over it kind of quickly: In a band-limited analog audio source (say, limited with a hard cut-off at 22khz frequencies), as long as the sampling rate is at least double the highest sound frequency, then there is mathematically ONE AND ONLY ONE curve (the sound wave) that goes through every sample point. In other words the digital to analog converter can recreate the EXACT (literally EXACT) original sound wave of ANY complexity that was the source. This means that 44.1khz can PERFECTLY recreate sound waves of ANY complexity as long as the highest frequency is below 22.05 khz - higher than the ability of human adults to hear, and above the hard cut-off the band-limited input source. Adding more samples, in other words using a higher sampling rate, does NOTHING EXCEPT enable you to capture frequencies above 22.05 khz (already above the ability of your ears to hear. And, incidentally, most microphones used, especially in a live setting, don't even capture frequencies higher than that to begin with. But, yup, the 96khz file can recreate frequencies up to 48khz, and the 192khz file can recreate frequencies up to 96khz. That's great if you're a hummingbird. Oh, and using some microphone that no one uses - and most definitely not used back in the 70's! (But, does it matter - you're playing these for you, not your dog or your hummingbird.) Anyway, read the article and watch the video. If you still feel like "spending thousands" as you said, go ahead. The music industry as you know is in serious financial straights with the new business models, and can use whatever boost they can get.

OPPO BLU RAY PLAYERS PLAY HDCD FOR ONE. EMOTIVA, DENON,AND MARANTZ PROCESSORS ARE HDCD CAPABLE. IF YOUR AUDIO SYSTEM CAN DECODE AND PLAY HD TRACKS HI RES DOWNLOADS, THEN IT SHOULD BE ABLE TO PLAY HDCD.

there are still plenty of HDCD players available, well, used. but trust me it makes a huge difference! and if you don't want to go that route just pop them in your computer and play them through windows media player! like you said microsoft bought them out and now they have a monopoly on it but dang if they don't sound awesome! (as long as you have some good speakers!) Once you put windows media player in "now playing" mode you should see the little HDCD logo pop up in bottom left corner! CHECK IT OUT!!!! man... broke the vial out last may for the cornell release... just, wow... just make sure you have 24 bit capable sound card and 24 bit output set through control panel sound options! peace!~