GMA Callisto vs. Reference 3a De Capo i

I would rate the Callistos much higher that the 3As. I had a home demo of 3As a couple of years ago and found that I preferred the considerably cheaper Athena AS-F2's. The 3AS sounded somewhat bright and forward to me.

I later took the advice of many Audiogon members and purchased a set of GMA Europas. They easily bettered the Athenas and I now have the Callistos which I am driving with a 12watt/channel Kr Audio amp. I still have the Athenas but only use them as home theater speakers.

I have found a review of the 3As in UHF Magazine. Here are some of the quotes:

by GR "The lively dynamics are something to behold" "... the upper midrange is more prominent that I would have liked..." "I still think this speaker is something special"

by AS "Mind you, at first I questioned the highs which sounded too sharp for my ears .... and seemed to affect female voices particularly." "Depth and space were particularly convincing. And speed."

by RL "But for a minor reservation concerning the top of the spectrum, which can get just slightly shrill now and then, I can say I liked these speakers a lot"

There a review for the Callistos on the 6 moons website and here is a quote:

"The treble was wonderfully open and clean with absolutely no trace of grain or sibilance. I cannot recall anther speaker at this price point that handles 'esses' and 'tees' as adeptly as the Callistos. They were completely devoid of hash or edge. Music sounded wide open and alive like a living, breathing entity - not unlike live music. The Callistos exhibited terrific dynamic range for such a modestly proportioned loudspeaker and displayed remarkable freedom from smearing and blurring."

These quotes reflect what I remember hearing with the 3As and currently hear with the Callistos. I would say that that the 3As would be more dynamic with rock music while the Callistos better at female vocals. I prefer the latter which is probably why I chose to look for something other than the 3As.