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?
Ys – Joanna Newsom
Posted: Thursday, 6 May 2010Joe Jackson – Body and soul
Livingston Taylor – Ink
Donald Fagen – Morph the Cat
Ana Caram – Blue Bossa
Bob Belden – Black Dahlia
Martin Pearlman, Boston Baroque – Vespers of 1610
Ensemble Galilei – From the isles to the courts
Tierney Sutton – Unsung heroes
The last three albums were recorded with binaural stereo microphones, and are particularly well-suited for headphone listening.
Posted: Friday, 7 May 2010If youve not heard of this…download it!
Rae and Christian : Northern Sulphuric Soul.
Posted: Saturday, 8 May 2010sounds amazing on the Zepillin too
My current fave is Caribou’s new album, Swim. I especially like the track Sun. Very clever.
Posted: Sunday, 9 May 2010Not in any specific order:
Posted: Monday, 10 May 2010Babble – Ether
Grateful Dead – Aoxomoxoa
Laurie Anderson – Bright Red
Eno/Byrne – Life in the Bush of ghosts
Eno/Budd/Lanois – The Pearl
Adrian Belew – Mr Music Head
Niyaz – Nine Heavens – deluxe version
Todd Rundgren – Any and all of his solo stuff
Richard Souther – Illumination – Hildegard Von Bingen – The Fire of the Spirit
Kate Bush – any and all of her stuff
My best headphone album is Bruce Cockburn Live – Fantastic soundstaging and sound.
Posted: Monday, 10 May 2010David Sylvian – Manafon
Posted: Monday, 10 May 2010but yeah, I’d also go with Bush, Eno/Fripp, or Laurie Anderson
in the B&W list: Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon, of course
my list:
no. 1 Elisabeth Karsten – Flux
no. 2 Music by Mark Isham – Romeo is bleeding
no. 3 Jacques Loussier – Baroque favorites
:)
Posted: Tuesday, 11 May 2010Changes everyday but currently the ones rocking my P5 the most are:
Cat Power- The Greatest
Posted: Wednesday, 12 May 2010Cocteau Twins – Heaven or Las Vegas
Kate Bush – Hounds of Love
My Life in a Bush of Ghosts by Brian Eno and David Byrne
Posted: Thursday, 13 May 2010Rhythm and Stealth by Leftfield
Moaning Ark Blakey and the Jazz Messengers
A Night in Paris by Diana Krall
What sold me on the P5′s: Pantyraid-The Sauce. Sounds absolutely incredible on my P5′s. The clarity and imaging are superb.
Some additional albums that I really enjoy especially through the P5′s are:
Cinematic Orchestra-Any studio album
Miike Snow-Miike Snow
Minus The Bear-OMNI
Velella Velella-Fight Club EP
Elbow-The Seldom Seen Kid
Thanks all for the input I found a few new artists based on recommendations here. Very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the David Crosby album recommended by B&W. The track “Cowboy Movie” is wonderful and is produced very well in my opinion.
Posted: Saturday, 15 May 2010The Cure ‘ Pornography ‘. It was a type of album that they haven’t recorded before or since this landmark 1982 album.
Posted: Saturday, 15 May 2010Living in Australia, it has been a slight logistical challenge to get my hands on some P5s. They’ve arrived and to do this properly, I’m adjusting the quality of my favourite albums before breaking in the cans.
Previously mentioned, but OK Computer and basically anything by Radiohead (NPR has a great podcast of one of their concerts which I’m keen to experience with ‘phones)
Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest.
Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (Both the orchestrated and piano versions)
Jamie Cullum and Nikki Yanofsky have some great arrangements that’ll get a guernsey too.
Having always used the standard issue Apple headphones, I’m looking forward to a quantum leap in experience and depth.
Previous posts have mentioned the price in Australia as being exorbitant – gotta agree. I know this is not the forum for this, but I’m not recommending these to my friends at AUD prices.
Posted: Friday, 21 May 2010Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms. Awesome.
Posted: Sunday, 30 May 2010great thread! my suggestions are:
Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
liked this album so much, named my dog after it.
Arcade Fire – Funeral
tons of instrumentation!
Sigur Ros – Ágætis Byrjun
this is one of those albums that makes you feel enveloped by music
Radiohead – Hail to the Thief
this particular album makes very good use of both sides of the headphones
thanks for all the good suggestions here, i’ve found a ton of new bands to geek out over.
Posted: Friday, 4 June 2010DSOTM, Steely Dan: Aja, Sgt. Pepper, Donald Fagen: The Nightfly, Jamiroquai: Dynamite, Incognito: Who Needs Love?, Alan Parsons: Try Anything Once, Tower Of Power Direct, Miles Davis: Decoy, Vienna Philharmonic: Mahler 5, Donald Fagen: The Nightfly, The Eagles: Hotel California, any Chick Corea solo piano CD, Pat Metheny: Secret Story, Toto IV
Posted: Monday, 7 June 2010Cafe del mar 16 currently taking me to a place of peace and tranquility. Waiting to get my p5s very soon
Posted: Wednesday, 9 June 2010Pink Floyd – The Wall
Posted: Thursday, 10 June 2010Peter Gabriel – Scratch My Back
Lord of the Rings Soundtrack
Hayley Westenra – Odessy
David Bowie – iSelect
Posted: Thursday, 24 June 2010The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper (mono) – like listening to this album for the first time
Roxy Music – Flesh & Blood – i’ve always preferred this album to Avalon
I just got my P5 headphones. Listened to Peter Gabriel’s “Scratch my back” in the store prior to buying them. Was surprised when I went back online to register my headphones, found out I got 3 month free membership of Society of sound. And to see that they have the same album as recommended and downloadable in flac 24. I love this…….
Would be great if B&W could make an app so that I could play the flac music in my Iphone swell….
Other cd’s I play when on the go:
Suzanne Vega, Songs in red and grey, and all the rest
Posted: Wednesday, 14 July 2010Tori Amos, Abnormally attracted to sin, and all the rest
Massive Attack, all of them
Madonna, Confessions on a dance floor
Pink Floyd, all of them
Björk, all of them
Aimee Mann, all of them
And then some……
Just got my p5′s…awesome! Looking forward to them being broken in properly.
Gary Go – Gary Go
Posted: Friday, 23 July 2010Imogen Heap-Ellipse
Ludovico Einaudi-divenire
Jonsi-Go
Cinematic orchestra- ma fleur
Postal service-give up
Grizzly Bear – Yellow House
end of story.
Posted: Sunday, 25 July 2010Marillion – Brave
Yes – Tales From Topographic Oceans (Remastered)
Sting – Soul Cages
Diana Krall – A Case Of You (Live) from the Live in Paris album.
So many details to discover on these.
Posted: Thursday, 29 July 2010I see many of my favourite albums have been listed above. But my favourite headphone listen, in its hi-fi recording quality and heart-wrenching emotion is:-
Bruce Cockburn – Life Short, Call Now
Exquisite.
Posted: Sunday, 15 August 2010No question,the supreme experience,above all others:
King Crimson,In the Court of the Crimson King,(1969);21st Century Schizoid Man and Moonchild
Steppenwolf,Steppenwolf 7,(1970);Renegade and Ball Crusher
The Who,Who’s Next,(1975),Bargain,Behind Blue Eyes,and Won’t Get Fooled Again
Posted: Thursday, 19 August 2010Hard rock, but the dark and sparse variety – light up a pair of cans with
Posted: Thursday, 19 August 2010-Tool 10000 days
- OSI Blood.
Like slo-mo napalm in sound, just brilliant.
There are so many fantastic albums to choose from but one I’ve been listening to is L T J Bukem ” journey inwards” . The other is from the society of sound “speed caravan”
Posted: Wednesday, 1 September 2010Miles Davis- ‘In a Silent Way’ For the space of it, just superb..
Posted: Saturday, 4 September 2010& Radioheads ‘Kid A’ Like the album was made for P5s..
Well that’s a difficult Question but for me will be
Bjork – Post
Pink Floyd – The Division Bell
Thievery Corporation – Sounds From The Thievery Hi-Fi
Kenny Burrel – Kenny Burrell Essentials
Radiohead – Ok Computer
Posted: Wednesday, 8 September 2010Led Zeppelin – Mothership
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
Love my P5′s :)
Posted: Saturday, 11 September 2010the antlers – hospice
memory tapes – seek magic
four tet – rounds
the knife – silent shout
thom yorke – the eraser
arcade fire – the suburbs
animal collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
Caribou – Swim
Boards of Canada – Music Has The Right To Children
radiohead – com lag
Posted: Thursday, 23 September 2010I have the “Inner Sound of the ID” record which I bought in the early 70′s. It is the best headphone album I’ve ever heard.
All the other albums listed are very good, just not as good.
Posted: Friday, 24 September 2010Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (The Ultimate Edition) 2009
Posted: Friday, 24 September 2010Aphrodite’s Child 666 (regarding the era : 1971)
Posted: Friday, 24 September 2010Vangelis : Blade Runner
Dave Mason-Alone Together
Posted: Friday, 24 September 2010Any Hawkwind Album.
e.g. “In Search Of Space”
Posted: Saturday, 25 September 2010Bowers & Wilkins P5 is a headphone.Sound quality of these headphone are really superb.It will not create any affect to your ear.
Posted: Monday, 27 September 2010Billy Thorpe, Children of the Sun.
Posted: Monday, 27 September 2010Skydiggers – self tittled (Leslie in particular)
Posted: Monday, 27 September 2010Holly Cole Trio – Temptation
The Who – Quadrophenia (if only I could get that album in better than CD quality . . . . )
Pharoah Sanders – The Message Home
Jarrett – Koln Concert
Great Lake Swimmers – Bodies and Minds
Fred Eaglesmith – Dusty
Lots of great suggestions here. My small contribution to the forum as follows:- (use Grado SR325s and occasionally the cheaper (but more comfortable!) Grado SR60s)
Radiohead – In Rainbows
Posted: Monday, 27 September 2010Massive Attack – Heligoland
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
Air – Talkie Walkie & Love 2
Royksopp – all four of them
The XX – X
Beyond the Missouri Sky – Charlie Haden & Pat Matheny