"The Hollow" and "Judith." In a lossless format, the separation between the aggressive bass lines and Keenan’s soaring vocals provides a 3D soundstage that MP3s simply flatten. 2. Thirteenth Step (2003)

"The Noose." The way the song builds from a delicate, whispered percussion to a wall-of-sound climax is a perfect test for any high-end audio system’s dynamic range. 3. eMOTIVe (2004)

Standard streaming or low-bitrate MP3s remove the "air" around the instruments. Because Billy Howerdel acts as both the primary songwriter and a perfectionist producer, his mixes are filled with: Which disappear in compressed files.