Shenmue Dojo

Well, the ones that came to my mind while I read this were:

The Beatles - Come Together
John Fahey - Fare Forward Voyagers
Pink Floyd - The Wall (album)

Really, Mittz, it's down to several factors. Among them being; The quality of speakers, the quality of headphones, the space you are in (with regards to speakers). As a rule, cheap headphones will perceptively give a better sound reproduction than cheap speakers. This is because the latter has to deal with the acoustics of the space it's in, outside noise etc, and cut through all of that. Whereas speakers drive the sound directly into your ears.

It's also subjective, of course. Headphones allow one to hear exactly what's been sequenced in Logic/whatever pretty much the way the soundcard outputs it to audio. Again, not quite true, as even headphones will 'colour' the sound. A piece of music will only sound exactly the way the artist recorded it whilst one is in the same studio the song is recorded in, through the same equipment.

The fact that you (probably) listen to your music through lossy compression formats also has an impact on the fidelity. This is a fact, though the extent to which you notice it will depend on; your ears, and the quality of your sound delivery system (speakers, headphones). As you can see, there are many factors. I tend to prefer speakers, as I listen to music a lot whilst I'm doing something. Especially when I'm doing chores around the house.

The best way to listen to music is to go on see an orchestra in a venue designed specifically for acoustics, where there is absolutely no amplification involved. This means pure, natural analogue sound going right to your ears.

Well, I would say good speakers. Headphones are nice for clarity, but you only feel bass shaking your ribcage with speakers

Well I will experiment with this sometime and get back to you, my fav track out of those is Stan but I liked Feel Good Inc. also.

I'd rather feel it rattlin' in the chest than not feel it.

^ I agree there with you. Bass is actually my favorite part of music most the time anyways. I need headphones that have good bass or it's garbage to me. And making everything rattle around you is pretty fun sometimes. Makes the music all that more better.

When I first read the OP, I took it as being more about the tunes sounding different/better on different formats, rather than the formats themselves?
Though I was stoned at the time I think.

Anyway, my first thought based on that made the memory of the day I got a 5.1 surround system, linked it via an optical cable to the Xbox, then got JSRF on the go. That game's soundtrack on the JVC TV I had at the time was already the biggest reason it was one of my favourite games. I was blown away with it on the surround. The tunes had more sounds than I thought they did, that I hadn't noticed on the lower-def TV speakers, which gave the tunes new depths and they, therefore the whole game, gained a whole new learning experience! The gameplay sounds of the vibrant environments that took advantage of the 5.1 (IIRC. It may have actually just been stereo and/or the receiver upconverting it) were pretty awesome too.

Sorry I couldn't have made this about like, actual real music, rather than games, but in audio memory terms, this one did jump right out on reading the topic. It was quite a moment of realisation on the importance of taking audio seriously, even though I did already know all that.

I have seen decent orchestras before as well in their compatible venues, and they too were great. Some of them had singing, which I remember as being impressive, also.