Digital Remastering: Last 5 years.....

Certainly true. Lately I've compared several high-quality recent vinyl releases to the RBCD version, and find CD is very close.

I've listened to the same LP copy of Wake of Flood for many years through a succession of TTs and phono stages. For reasons that elude me, my opinion of the sonics of this LP have varied widely through the various analog front ends. But as my equipment has evolved, the LP keeps sounding better & better, without any thinness or shyness in bass. Far from "horrible", I think it has high quality sonics-- and is of course an excellent Dead album artistically. The album seems to be less forgiving of systems limitations than many LPs, and therefore makes a pretty good test record with which to judge a system. That said, I agree with you that recent Dead CD remasters sound great-- particularly enjoy Fillmore West 1969.