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Felix Mendelssohn: Six Organ Sonatas, Op.65, Andante with Variations in D.
Thomas Murray, organ
Raven Recordings OAR-390 (CD). 1996.

Lincoln Mayorga, William T. Van Pelt, prods. David Griesinger, Edward Kelly, Stephen Fassett, engs.

I learned about this recording from Kal Rubinson's 2017 review of the Kii Audio Three, which used the fourth movement of Organ Sonata No.1—his "go-to for low-frequency articulation and extension"—to evaluate the speaker's bass response.

In 1973, Lincoln Mayorga recruited Thomas Murray to perform…

Ravel: The Complete Edition
Various artists
Decca 478 3725 (14 CDs). 2012. Various prods.; various engs.

If I'm going to die for records, or take them to a desert island, I might as well get my money's worth. For less than $4 per CD, you can pack this superb collection of everything Maurice Ravel composed into a small carry-on. Spanning virtually the entire stereo era, with a global collection of artists and terrific sound, plus all of the vocal texts in a 183-page book, there are no weak links. Organized by type—three discs of piano works, two…

Kurt Weill, Et Al: Bye Bye Berlin
Marion Rampal, vocals; Raphaël Imbert, saxophone and bass clarinet; Quatuor Manfred
Harmonia Mundi HMM 902295 (CD). 2018. Alban Moraud, artistic dir. and prod.

A gentle bass clarinet introduction, Rampal's soft and breathy voice, and a plucked bass in a habanera rhythm set us up for the entry of her full voice, with strings, as they launch into the eager, longing tango of Weill's "Youkali." Rampal, the quartet, and—importantly—Imbert's low winds share a moderately dry acoustic whose subtle ambiance is just…

When I first heard mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli in person some 29 years ago, at her West Coast debut in the "Cal Performances" series at Berkeley's Hertz Hall, she was just 24 years old. Along with the rest of the audience, I was astonished at her ability to ally phenomenal coloratura technique with an out-of-the-box range of expression—unheard…

Following an auspicious start, hi-fi in the '60s got complicated. It went backward by going forward. Hi-fi expanded to reach a larger audience. But it did so partly by going mid-fi, with a focus on style, convenience, and broad appeal.…

The other big advantage to Ultralinear operation is that you get more power. The 160 is specified to put out twice as much—140W—in Ultralinear mode than in…

Description: Fully balanced, class-AB tubed stereo power amplifier. Tube complement: four KT150 (output), two 6H30 (gain stage) per channel. Inputs: unbalanced (RCA), balanced (XLR). Three sets of speaker output taps: 4, 8, 16 ohms. Output power: 140Wpc continuous, 20Hz–20kHz (21.5dBW). Frequency response: 0.5Hz–110kHz –3dB at 1W. Power bandwidth: –3dB at 5Hz and 70kHz,. Input sensitivity: 2.4V RMS balanced for rated output (25.5dB gain into 8 ohms). Input impedance: 300k ohms balanced, 100k ohms single-ended. Output regulation: ca 0.6dB into 16 ohm load to open…

Analog sources: Thorens TD 124 turntable (reconditioned by Schopper AG), Thomas Schick 12" tonearm; Ortofon Xpression cartridge.
Digital sources: Intel NUC computer with SSD drive running Roon Optimized Core Kit; Synology DS918+ DISKSTATION 4-BAY Network Attached Storage device with 16TB; TP-Link 8-Port Gigabit network switch (unmanaged); ProJect CD Box RS2 T CD Transport; PS Audio DirectStream DAC.
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 Standard step-up transformer, EAR 834P phono stage, Pass Labs XP-22 and Audio Research Reference 6 preamplifiers.
…

As with the Audio Research Reference 160 M amplifier that was reviewed in the October 2018 issue of Stereophile, measuring the Reference 160 S was a complicated business. The amplifier has balanced and single-ended inputs, output stages that can be run in either triode or Ultralinear mode, and three output-transformer taps. In effect, it is 12 different amplifiers. I performed full sets of tests using the balanced inputs in both triode and Ultralinear modes from the 4 ohm, 8 ohm, and 16 ohm output taps, then repeated some of the tests using the single-ended…