wholeheartedly agree with all three... and I'll add the Dukes of Stratosphear's 25 O'Clock, which is nuts in cans!
Some favorites: Pink Floyd -The Final Cut and The Wall Roger Waters -The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking Frank Zappa -Joe's Garage Gong -You War -Deliver The Word Hawkwind -Warrior At The Edge of Time and Levitation Led Zeppelin -Physical Graffiti Jethro Tull -A Passion Play Earth Wind and Fire -I Am and Raise The Moody Blues -To Our Childrens... and basically any of the core 7 Jeff Beck -Blow by Blow
over the holidays for the first time with good phones and amp... i now realize that is his second bass drum in the right channel, not a floor tom... geez....
In general, Pink Floyd and Queen sound best through headphones given that both bands were pretty big enthusiasts of stereo trickery. For instance, Queen's "Flick of the Wrist" features an effect where the line "a dig in the ribs" sounds like it's being sung directly into each ear, which works brilliantly with headphones but gets lost with speakers; I still have no idea how they pulled that off. In terms of specific albums, Reckoning by R.E.M. was recorded binaurally, and even though it already sounds good through speakers, it feels even fuller and more striking through headphones. It's especially impressive because Mitch Easter and Don Dixon didn't use an actual binaural mic; they just stuck two regular microphones out of the sides of a cardboard box.
Some prime-cut stereo "Sennheiser bait": Lenny Breau - The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau...Live! (RCA) Trees - On The Shore (CBS) Blossom Toes - If Only For A Moment (Marmalade) The Golden Dawn - Power Plant (International Artists) Euphoria - A Gift From Euphoria (Capitol) Creation Of Sunlight - self-titled (Windi) Porter Waggoner - The Cold Hard Facts of Life (RCA) Talk Talk - The Spirit of Eden (Parlophone) Van Morrison - Hardnose The Highway (Warner Brothers) Fairport Convention -What We Did On Our Holidays (Island) Kathy McCord - self-titled (CTI)
Talk Talk - Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock Slint - Spiderland Most King Tubby albums Madvillain - Madvillainy Boards Of Canada - Geogaddi Yes - Close To the Edge Talking Heads - Remain In Light Cure - Disintegration Global Communication - 76:14 My Bloody Valentine - Loveless lots of CTI's disclaimer - I don't own an expensive system or expensive headphones
Been an avid Phones Listener in recent years ,Giving My Wife a Break after Years of Thumping coming from the Basement ..Some of the LP's that impressed Me most were Ones that never had the Aclaim of being "Headphone Albums " as far as I know ; Wire; Chairs Missing , 154 First 2 Burrito Brothers Smiths ; Meat is Murder Byrds Untitled And of Course the obvious ;Hendrix ,Gong , Rundgren , Tomita , Genesis .....and Many many more .It's something to just put an LP on that You haven't heard on Phones before , and hear lots of Details you hadn't noticed before ....
TFF have a couple of excellent ones: Songs From The Big Chair and The Seeds of Love. Depeche Mode Violator
I was a different kind of kid. Before I hit puberty, I was warned by my doctor about the evils of both sodium and headphones.
A Jim Steinman song produced by Jimmy Iovine. They made it for "the kid in Wisconsin" Transcript (taken from Classic Albums Six Hour Interview ):