I just spoke to John at Gallo and the sub amp is not yet avaliable. They expect to get the latest prototype in the next couple of days. It seems that they decided to make a couple of changes at the last minute and this has slightly delayed release of the amp. John assured me that the 240 wpc amp running just the 2nd voice coil of the woofer makes for some VERY impressive bass. This with a good tube amp running the rest of the speaker should make this speaker sound fantastic. If anyone is able to get one soon, please be sure to post your impressions. It is also suggested that if you run the eq on the amp at +6, it will help to break the woofer in faster. If you are listening to music you might want to back that down as the bass will be too overpowering and not intigrate well (the +6 position is only for break in purposes). |
Divo: I have the Mk 1 Super Eclipses. Dopogue: I tried the Gallos pointing straight forward; woofer in, woofer out, etc. The upper mid forward thing is lessened by the toe-in. (Side wall reflection makes it worse, maybe
.?)
I think I figured out the problem. I re-tubed the Cary SLAM-100's and noticed the new KT-88's biased lower on their own than the previous set. When I brought the new tubes' bias up to the former level, the upper-mid forwardness came back (to some degree). When I backed off the biasing, it is greatly reduced. (I will have to check the Cary website to make sure I am biasing correctly.) Who's to say, at this point, whether the major difference comes from the new tubes themselves or the lower biasing? Perhaps both. Maybe lower biasing more will sound better yet.
Without this forwardness and with the greater integration, the result reminds me of a top-notch monitor with a bit of extra lower extension: open, detailed, images like crazy, engaging, etc. Now, if I could just fill in the bass more.... (The Super Eclipses have bass and dynamics that help lend impact and scale.)
Has anybody tried the Gallo sub-amp to co-drive the woofer vs. another separate sub from another manufacturer? |
Kalan, just a thought. Have you tried the speakers pointing straight -- no toe-in? In my room, they sound best that way. They're exactly 8' feet apart, with the woofers facing inward (after a solid day of placement experimentation). Dave |
Kalan, which SE do you have? MK1 (ti tweater), mk2(with revelator tweater) or mk3 (ie the latest)? |
Dopogue, The speakers I've been using for 3 years do not have the upper-mid prominence (that I hear in the Gallos) at all. The Coincident Super Eclipses sound balanced through that range.
The time coherency of the Gallos seems better than the Coincidents, and the Gallos have more extended and revealing upper fr information with a life-like quality. If I can just get that upper-mid thing to integrate, I'd be happy.
I will contact my dealer. I also hope to bring the Gallos to a dealer with a much bigger room and then also try different amplifiers and compare with other speakers. |
Kalan, sounds like either a room problem or a defective pair of Ref 3s. Did your former speakers exhibit a similar upper-mid prominence? Re your last question, my Ref 3s love tubes; yours should sound great too -- can't understand why they don't. Does your dealer have a clue? Good luck, Dave |
I have been living with the Ref 3's for a couple of weeks now. 'Closed in' would be the farthest thing from my experience I could come up with to describe their sound. They are fantastically open and revealing in my system.
In fact, they sound too prominent in the upper mids/lower treble in my room. Because of a door and power sources, I have to place the speakers at the short wall and fire them along the long wall. This may cause a first reflection room interaction that accentuates the upper mids. The 300 degree-dispersion tweeter may need more "breathing room" than the 32 inches (to the side walls) I am giving them. Despite the open-celled, rippled foam I have placed at those reflection points, I still hear a fatiguing, forward, ("shouty") upper-mid prominence.
Does anybody else have a similar problem with the Gallos?
Putting the upper mid-prominence aside (which may be unique to my set up), the Nucleus Ref 3's open up a detailed, light, and airy window on the source material that surprised me---especially for their price. (My reference is the Coincident Super Eclipse.) Their sound stage height is not an issue with me. The sound stage height is in proportion with the whole picture; it is somewhat like listening from the first row, mezzanine or balcony at a symphony hall---where the sound is often best anyway--and looking down slightly at the stage. Lowering the listening position compensates for this--if you don't like it.
I would like to bring the Gallos to a dealer to test them against other speakers in a different room just to find out what happens. Maybe that upper-mid shouting will be proven to be in my setup only.
I am currently listening to the Gallos with a pair of 95-watt, triode, push-pull mono blocks (Cary SLAM-100s) and also inserted the Berning ZH-270 amp. Do folks out there have a take on whether the Gallo Ref 3's "like" solid state or tube amps? |
After reading some of the comments above about the Gallo sounding closed in I feel compelled to write that something had to be wrong as the pair I heard were very open, detailed and immediate.
I really like the design of this speaker too because it has no crossover from 125 hz on up and is easy to drive. |
Tlerpan1,
The Gallos require some set-up experimentation for best results. I ended up with the woofers facing each other and the speakers toed-in to nearly directly face the listing position. This position puts the image height at about 5' to 6', which is similar to nearly every other speaker I've auditioned. I found that with the speakers facing directly ahead, the image height was far too low in my listening room, maybe only 2' or 3' from the floor.
Jeff |
I have not heard the Gallo refernce 3 yet, but have read the Absolute Sound. They did state that the amplifier was very important - "top shelf amplification may be needed". I plan on auditioning them. I hope I can find a dealer that has them set up properly. |
I too had the same experience with the Gallo's ounding "closed in" and dissapointing. After reading the sparkling review on Six Moons I thought that I should give them a go before I dropped the coins on new mains. However, after about 30 min. of listening I was underwhelmed. One of the most surprising factors was that physical size was much smaller than I expected...not a bad thing..just different than I imagined after looking at them in pictures. I must say though, that they seemed remarkably well built and are very eye catching indeed. I will invest a second listen... |
Jeffrey, that's great if you don't mind having your multi-megabuck speaker inventory sitting there unsold and gathering dust until you discount it enough to get rid of it. :-) |
Dopogue, if YOU were a dealer, wouldn't you LOVE to have a product that sells LOTS more often per demo than the other alternative? The dealer makes more margin (necessary to stay in business) on 3 pairs of $2500 Gallos SOLD than one pair of $10,000 speakers NOT sold. |
Here's something to ponder regarding dealer auditions, from Srajan Ebaen's follow-up (June) to his original review (April) at six.moons.com (Read these if you haven't already):
"As I've said before, pricing a $10,000/pr beater at $2,595/pr is asking for trouble. Say you were a dealer. Would YOU want such an upstart to undermine sales of your pricier spreads? Hell no. Say you did put it on the floor. Wouldn't you do everything in your power to MAKE it sound like a $2,595 speaker ..."
The dealer where I bought mine said he had sold zero other speakers more expensive than the Ref 3s since he started demonstrating them. On the other hand, he had sold 11 pairs of Ref 3s in something like six weeks.
Just something to think about. Dave |
Yes, Banksfriend and I did auditioned the Nucleus 3 from Gallo, and have to agree that the pair in question did sound closed in. We both, after reading the TAS article, tried to recollect, and discussed, what we heard that day. The only solution is a trip back to that dealer, for another audition. |
I auditioned Gallo's with MF gears .. they were better than Thiels, B&W 7 series, Joseph audio's and few others in that price range but found few others are better than Gallo's .. Monitor Audio Gold ref 60 ($4K), Odyssey Lorelei($2700), I ended up buying Usher 6781 and really Happy.
Milind |
Jeffreybehr,
I have a small listening room and the bass extension is excellent without the subwoofer amp so I won't need to add that to the Gallos. |
I share your impressions of the Gallo's. They were OK, but were not what TAS described. The mid-range was a bit vieled and the upper bass region was muddied. I went to the dealer expecting to purchase a pair of these speakers, but instead bought some Audio Note AN-Es (new AN-Es cost me $2,500). In my opinion, it wasn't even close. The Audio Note's simply outclassed the Gallo's and were far more musically engaging. I think your hearing is OK. |
I agree with Rad 21 -- you're describing a pair that is not broken in. The break-in period begins after they've been playing about 6 hours and lasts for about 100 hours, if my pair is typical. I was also worried about image size, since my speakers were 8-driver Gallo Ultimates, over 4 feet tall. the Ref 3s have at least as large an image with an incredible soundstage.
I'm using 12 wpc SET monoblocks to power them, plus a 100 wpc stereo SS amp, thru a HSU crossover set at 43 Hz, to power the woofers'second voice coils. The low bass is awesome this way, but it is very good even without the second amp. I'd like to at least try Gallo's subwoofer amp, but the current setup is going to be hard to beat.
These are fabulous speakers. |
One concern I've read about is the low soundstaging due to the fact that they're rather short.
Did any of you who own the Gallos find that problem compared to your previous speakers? |
I can tell you that the Gallo's are the best all around speaker I have ever owned (Maggie's, Proacs, Soliloqy's, Mission 770's, Sonus Faber's). The only speaker other speaker that challenges them is my pair of System Audio
SA2K's which is the best monitor sized speaker I have ever heard anywhere. The Gallo's have a great tweeter and if you set them up properly (away from the walls and well into the room and listen in the relative nearfield) they provide a transparent and spacious window into the performance. I have not noticed any colorations.....every source material shows it's own virtues with little interference from the speaker. |
Hmm, Guess I'll have to revisit my dealer. I wonder if the fact that we also heard Sonus Fabers and JM Labs in the same store colored my impressions? |
Rad, did you buy the subwoofer amp? If so, does adding it improve the bass extention as much as TAS said? How about that 'thickening' he/she mentioned? |
It sounds like the pair you listened to were not fully broken in. The speakers improve remarkably after about 80-100 hours. I didn't believe it and now that i have the speakers over a month, they sound incredible. Check out the review at audioasylum and read the comments on the link. These speakers sound far better in my room that my Maggie 1.6's ever did. For the price, the Gallos are a steal. I waited over a month to get mine and I was getting pretty frustrated waiting but they were worth the wait. Incredible soundstage depth, width and imaging along with accurate midrange, well defined bass and great clarity . These speakers impress me more than any speakers I have owned so far- that includes Vortex Screens, ML Aerius and Magnepan 1.6's... YMMV but the Gallos far exceeded my expectations. |
I heard the Gallo yesterday for 15 minutes on a Norah Jones CD, that I am familiar with, and liked them quite a bit. They were using a Rotel CD player, pre-amp and amp. I thought they were quite open and detailed and enjoyable to listen to especially for being driven by Rotel which I think is good but not great stuff.
If I was not so happy with my JMR Trentes I would think about a pair.
BTW, HI FI+ and Bound for Sound gave it rave reviews as well and when I read about them in TAS I decided to go listen. |
