Gallo Reference 3 SA Owners

I'm running my volume controls at approx. 1 o'clock. The amps are custom SET monoblocks.

Volume control on SA amp is pretty much personal preference. The manual even indicates that you may want to set the volume control at different levels for different types of music. Mine are set at zero at all times. Spectron amp.

Bostonbean, your SA volume controls are set at zero? How do you get any sound out of it that way?

The "volume controls" work more as tone controls, not for loudness. The SA fills still fills in the lower octaves on your Gallo 3.x's with the so called volume controls set at flat or zero. The manual explains it much better than I can.

When I tried turning off my main amps and just use the Gallo amp to power the second voice coil I got no sound when the volume control was set to zero. I didn't start getting sound until I started to increase the gain. I think you are supposed to open up the volume controls until you get " a perfectly seamless and invisible level of bass reinforcement". ( Page 11 in the manual). I believe that is what Gallo means as "flat". The way I read it "flat" is not zero on the volume controls. If you want a "fatter sound" then you would increase the volume. If your volume controls are set to zero I think it may be very possible that the Gallo is not doing anything in your system except wasting electricity. Just to make sure I wasn't imagining things I went down and tried it again. With the level set to "min" I got nothing. I didn't get anything until I started to increase the level.

I just checked the manual again, Bostonbean, and I can't figure out where you're getting that. We're not talking about the Booster Control but the volume (Level) controls.

Verbatim beginning at the bottom of page 8..."The volume controls on the SA operate much like a bass tone control on a receiver, except that they're far more precise and allow independent adjustments for each channel. Listening to your favorite albums, you can easily set the tonal balance and the subjective amount of bass exactly to your liking. You could even have multiple settings such as 'flat' for classical and 'fat' for pop, rock, reggae and hip-hop. Why not? It's as easy as turning up the two gain controls by a predetermined amount, so it still sounds coherent, but a little bit stronger in the low bass than is perfectly flat".

Well sure, but the point is that you do have to advance the two level controls from the "Min" (zero) position to get anything out of the amp at all. Your contention that these controls work as tone controls is true insofar only as the SA operates as a LOW BASS control as you advance the level settings. I mean, it's just a subwoofer amp and that's its job.

Dopogue, I just don't think Bostonbean gets it. He's confusing flat with zero. In this case flat is not zero. There is a position on the level control where the bass is neither attenuated or accentuated. If you can find that position then you will have a flat response below 40 hz. If you go above that position you may have too much bass, below that position, not enough bass. The reason why Gallo doesn't mark that position on the level control is because it is system and room dependent. That is why you have do the best you can and do it by ear. That is what I asked in my OP. Where are the owners of the Gallo amp setting the level?

I run mine at about 1 o'clock. My amp is a DK Design VS I Reference Mk.2