An interesting story about the Watkins Glen show and McIntosh. Because of the size of the venue the Dead decided they needed more MC2300 power amps to drive some more PA speakers for that show. A member of the Dead's road crew flew from Watkin's Glen to Binghamton in a helicopter (both cities are near one another in Upstate NY) with a wad of cash in his pocket to buy 5 more power amps.
Turns out the factory was closed for Summer vacation, but a local dealer got the President of McIntosh on the phone, who then drove to the factory with his family in the station wagon loaded up for vacation, to sell the Dead 5 more amps. At this point permission was obtained from the Binghamton police department to land the chopper by the factory door to load in the 5 MC2300's and fly them back to Watkin's Glen. The amps were so heavy (125 lbs. each) that the chopper had a difficult time getting airborne! But as often happened, providence smiled upon the Grateful Dead and they got the amps to the concert site and were able to get that much more sound to the assembled faithful.
For many years afterwards the Dead had in their PA 5 MC2300's with no serial numbers, because the amps had not gone through their final testing process.
PS- Over the years I have conversed with a number of people who attended this show, and very few of them remember the music played, never mind the PA system.
