Thanks for posting this article link. I followed the link in that article to the 1970 Fillmore East version, posted on youtube. Somebody in the comments section helpfully mentioned that this version is from Dick's Picks number 4. So I got a copy of that album and gave it a listen. On the minus side, the bass is somewhat lacking in this Dark Star version. However, everything else in the recording is excellent, way better than the original from Live Dead. Noise and distortion are both very low. There appears to be no dynamic range compression at all, and I'd say the dynamic range on Dark Star is easily in the top five of any song in my collection.
So if that's your thing, you might want to check out Dick's Picks number 4.