There’s something very special about listening to music on headphones. A sense of closeness to the artist, and, of course, with the right headphones, just enough isolation from the hustle and bustle of the outside world to make listening a real pleasure.
And while a great album is always a great album, sometimes a particular recording will lend itself to the intimate atmosphere of a great pair of headphones. Whether those headphones are connected to your home hi-fi or to an iPod for listening on the move, the experience can transport you.
We’d love to know what your favourite headphone listening pleasures are. Whether it happens to be on a pair of Bowers & Wilkins P5 mobile hi-fi headphones or something else.
Here’s a selection of ours just to get you started.
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
Read about it here.
Richard Buckner – Devotion and Doubt
Wonderfully recorded, simple guitar and wonderful voice.
David Crosby – If Only I Could Remember My Name.
Gloriously produced, and wonderful on headphones.
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – I see a Darkness
A great hi-fi album full stop. Wonderfully intimate recording.
Massive Attack – Mezzanine
If your headphones can do great bass, this is a must-have recording.
What’s your favourite headphone album?
Extract/rip the sound from The Wall (the movieDVD) if you want something special. You really don’t need the pictures close your eyes, lean back and the pictures will appear on the backside of your eyelids… Grace Jones “Slave to the rhythm” or “Hurricane”. Pearl Jam “Binaural” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording) good experience. My equipment: Grado SR 60 Prestige series powered by Cayin & Spark
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Heather Nova -> The Jasmine Flower. Recorded with just a microphone and laptop and later just slightly produced instead of the overproduced albums nowadays. Makes you feel like the singer is really under your skin. Not a perfect clinical recording but a perfect headphone album!
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Sylvie Lewis Translations
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
Susie Arioli That’s For Me
Two albums immediately spring to [my] mind: Kyoji Yamamoto’s Electric Cinema and Michael Schenker Group’s Live at The Budokan. Neither album is of particularly good sound quality but I have always loved lying on the floor listening to these two at sound levels that has probably been the direct cause of the past 20 years of tinnitus.
On the other end of the spectrum is Oscar Peterson’s Night Train. It has exceptionally good sound quality (except on Hymn to Freedom) and an incredibly tight atmosphere. Perfect for that in-head-experience of headphones.
Oh… and thumbs up to the rest mentioned here. Perhaps I miss Brett Anderson’s Wilderness in the comments above, so lets put that in for an honorable mention, shall we?
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Mike Oldfield – Amarok!!!!!!! Be careful…………
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Dire Straits – Brothers in arms
both with Sennheiser HD 600, hopefully later this year with the new P5.
Miles Davis-We Want Miles
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Dr. John-Duke Elegant
Van Morrison-The Healing Game
Ahmad Jamal-Digital Works
Bryan Ferry-Dylanesque
anuna “deep dead blue”
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010angelo branduardi “il ladro”
steve roach “the magnificent void”
portishead “dummy”
michael brecker “michael brecker”
jeff buckey “grace” (remastered version)
gregorio paniagua – atrium musicae de madrid “tarentule tarentelle”
peter gabriel “scratch my back” and “up”
For me it has to be John Martyn’s One World. There’re a number of stand-out tracks to which it’s impossible to sit still but, for pure atmosphere, it has to be the title track. It was recorded outdoors at night next to a lake, and John’s echoplex, leaving the chords hanging endlessly, is truly the work of a man at his creative peak. You can pick out the sound of geese in the background with the water lapping, and Steve Winwood’s moog weaving it’s magic throughout is a delight. In the words of Ralph McTell “If that dosn’t move you, there’s something wrong with you”.
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010even for a simple student
Fleetwood Mac – Big Love (from The Dance)
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Shawn Mullins – And On a Rainy Night
Uriah heep Demons&Wizards
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Genesis The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Julianna Raye Dominoes (But better sound on good speakers)
This are my favourite headphone recordings
Andreas Vollenweider Behind the Gardens
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Andreas Vollenweider Caverna Magica
Georg Danzer Tour’ 79
Frank Zappa The Best Band you ever heard i your live
Miles Davis Kind of Blue
Yes, the superannuated hippie in me still loves “Welcome to the Machine” and “Dark Side of the Moon,” but I would also suggest David Tudor’s “Neural Synthesis” – the head-transfer disc is norhing short of jaw-dropping. Young Mr. Gabriel’s “Security” holds its own, as doe “Kid A.”
But might I also humbly recommend:
The newly remastered “Red” from King Crimson (DGM)
The divine reissue of Keith Jarret’s “Sun Bear Concerts” (ECM)
or (for those of you who love hurtling metal
Jonty Harrison’s “Évidence matérielle” on Empreintes DIGITALes
and finally, if you’re under a hundred billion years old,
Thomas Feiner/Anywhen’s “The Opiates” (Samadhisound)
We now return you to your usual listings…. :-)
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010The Wedding Present – Bizarro
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Cocteau Twins – Blue Bell Knoll
Jacques Brel – Quand on n’a que l’amour
Serge Gainsbourg – L’homme a téte de chou
Pink Floyd – The final cut
Crash Music For Film Vol. 2 16bit
Crash Music For Film Vol. 4 24 bit
Sonic Candy!!
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010My recommendation:
Roger Waters: Amused to Death – A wonderful music production, a forgotten Q-Sound system
McCoy Tyner: New York Reunion – a Chesky Jazz classic
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010The best album for me on headphones is Traffic – John Barleycorn Must Die.
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Steve Winwood sounds even more spiritual than usual on this album and the quality of the musicianship in the group was at its best for this one (although it was never in doubt).
My particular favourite track is Empty Pages because its Jazzy feel sets my endorphins running and I become at peace with the world.
A good set of headphones is essential to make this possible and I look forward to the chance to listen to this Album through some P5s.
Unfortunately, for me the budget may be against me but I can dream.
Buika with Niña de Fuego. Fantastic fragile, but powerful emotion.
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010My faves are:
Olivia Tremor Control – Black Foliage Music (actually designed w/ headphones in mind)
Can – Tago Mago
Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Ambrosia
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Another insane question. I’ll give you my top three and then tomorrow say, “Yeah, but…”
1) Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel (3)
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 20102) Sarah McLachlan – Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Legacy Edition)
3) Zero 7 – Simple Things
Beatles – Abbey Road
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
King Crimson – In The Court Of The Crimson King
Jellyfish – Bellybutton
Porcupine Tree – Deadwing
Peter Gabriel – So
Chris Rea : The Road To Hell
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010TALK TALK “spirit of eden”
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Pink Floyd: The Wall — with the lights out.
Posted: Tuesday, 4 May 2010Pink Floyd……… Meddle
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010Radiohead……. Amnesiac
Cheryl Dilcher – Butterfly
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010Portico Quartet – Knee deep in the north sea
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010Dave Mathews Band – Live at Piedmont Park
Tom Waits: Nighthawks at the diner
Pat Metheny: Travels (double CD) – almost thirty years old and still a standard
Oscar Peterson: Waltzing is hip/Satin doll (from Exclusively for my friends Vol 3) – sixteen minutes of svelte, sublime jazz
;-)
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010I’d love to hear my fav’ album on P5′s but before I tell you what the album is, tell me (as I asked sales two weeks ago) why is the P5′s RRP $US299, 351 UK pounds – but here in Oz, AU$499? Looking at most on line currency converters, $299US is $AU 314, not $499.
Who’s making the killing here? By the way, I’m getting the prices of the relevant Apple iShop’s in the respective countries.
It doesn’t look like you’re going to sell many P5′s in Oz, unless they’re grey imports.
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010Ebehard Weber – The Following Morning (sublime bass playing)
Bill Frisell – Bill Frisell with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones
Bill Evans – The Paris Concert – Edition One and Two
John Mayal – The Tirning Point
Madeleine Peyroux – Bare Bones
Me’Shell Ndegeocello – The Sprit Music: Dance of the Infidel
Nick Drake – A Treasury
Paul Bley, Gary Peacock, Paul Motion – Live at Lugano
Finally – anything by Keith Jarrett or Radiohead
When I get my P5′s I will make a definitive choice from the above!!
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010Miles Davis – Round About Midnight
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010Scott Walker – Scott 2
America – America
Marvin Gaye – Trouble Man
Stevie Wonder – Innervisions
Lonnie Liston Smith – Expansions
George Duke – The Aura Will Prevail
Klaus Schulze – Moondawn
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
I am currently using a set of Shure SE210′s. I love the way they slip into my ear canal and instantly dampen all the noise around me. Once music is playing (and it doesn’t need to be that loud), all that external noise pollution ceases to exist.
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010My favourite album to listen to is David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane.
I used to play it to death on its original release and thought I knew every note on the album. When I heard it for the first time with my SE210′s, I was totally blown away.
What I heard was a new rich texture of interwoven sounds balanced with perfection, each layer complimenting the others with orchestral dexterity. I still go back to it and marvel in awe at (what I consider to be) a work of pure genius. I’m interested to see how it sounds on a pair of Bowers & Wilkins.
Melissa Etheridge: Fearless Love
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010K.D. Lang: Recollection
Coco Montoya: I Want It All Back
Keb’ Mo’: Slow Down
Selling England by the Pound-Genesis
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010The Snowgoose-Camel
The Sound Of Sight-Ray Martin & His Orchestra
Close to the Edge-Yes
I suggest Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells 2 :great variety of instruments,good quality recording
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010I always enjoy this album on my actual earphones
Waiting to get a chance to test it on this B&W P5
Just for the “Sound”:
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010Dire Straits – On every street
Toto – Kingdom of desire
Pink Floyd – The Division Bell
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Just for the Sound and everything else:
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon, of course….
For the slightly ‘harder’ division:
Avantasia – The Scarecrow
-The Wicked Symphony
Both albums are brilliant on nice headphones – the first one might be something for enthusiasts of great recordings (won some awards for that if I am not mistaken).
Or try:
DOMMIN – Love is gone
Enjoy.
Posted: Wednesday, 5 May 2010Anything by kiwi boys PITCH BLACK or Paddy Free
or Fat freddys drop superb!!
Posted: Thursday, 6 May 2010I vote for Radiohead’s Amnesiac.
Posted: Thursday, 6 May 2010“Beyond a Missoury sky” by Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden
Posted: Thursday, 6 May 2010