Ear Candy: Most startling recordings.

Ammused to death is my all time/most played ever, cd.I understand they recorded the effects/stuff out of phase---as they do for surround sound.Some things come from behind or beside you.Best 2'ch ss.Love the music and the lyrics as well.It is a sort of test cd;after I have bought a tweak or whatever;I can hear deeper into the sound stage,if the tweak worked.

Without doing a history lesson of "head" music from the 1970s, during the early 1990s there was some good techno/electronica albums that made full use of studio tech to create incredible soundscapes......here are some quality examples artist/album.....Chemical Brothers/Planet Dust, Juno Reactor/Bible of Dreams, Fluke/Risotto, Crystal Method/Vegas, Underworld/Beaucoup Fish, Massive Attack/Mezzanine........many many more, unfortunately most audiophiles do not explore this area, sound quality is much better than average rock album, Sam

Anything by Yello. Their CDs still stand as some of the very best technical discs you'll find, and the stuff on'em is pretty good, as well. A "must" for any CD library.

Nautilus's vinyl pressing of Neil Young's "Harvest". Try to find one used, cue it up, and prepare to be startled.

Two LP's come to mind: an old Riverside recordings called "The Sounds of Speed", which included stuff like the world-record land speed record by Mickey Thompson; steam locomotive going by; etc. It's long out-of-print, but if you can find a decent copy I guarantee it will wring out your audio system. The other LP that comes to mind is Keith Johnson's recording on Reference Records called "Astounding Sound Show" (or something close to that). It contains 7 cuts from various recordings he has done, and several are really startling.