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Wit's end with Gallo 3.1s

The room to which I've been relegated has the worst acoustics imaginable: concrete walls, hard floor, 8 feet of carpet in front of the speakers, speakers have to be close to wall, and a HUGE home gym in the middle of everything. All I can say is the room has great acoustic diffusion. I feared for the gallos getting bumped by work on the gym so I bought a pair of well cared for Celestion model 100s, not the Dittons. Put them on throwaway Sonus stands and was shocked. Made the Gallos sound like they were playing under a rug. Source is a Cambridge Audio 740c player, Parasound P3 pre, PS Audio HCA2 pwr amp, and some huge audioquest speaker cables, silver wired IC between CD and pre, Kimber XLR between pre and pwr amp. I went back and forth between the speakers and couldn't get over it. I added a $400 Gallo sub to the Celestions and I started to seriously question why I still owned the Gallos. Bought a NAD C365BEE integrated amp and it made no difference. The Gallos were dull and flat compared to the Celestion/sub combo but bass was killer. Went even further and took pre out of NAD to PS Audio amp and it improved a bit for the Gallos, but they sounded like they were playing under a blanket instead of a rug. I really wondered if my tweeter was cooked or broken, but I could get tone out of it on a tone sweep track on a test LP I inherited from Dad. Did same sweep with Celestions and treble was like +6db better at 12K, 10K and 5K, then the midrange bloom of the gallos took over. Everything I tried still had the Gallos sounding comparatively dead.

I don't know when I'll get out of this concrete matchbox (main area is 16X20 ft with a 7 ft ceiling. I'm wondering if signal processors exist that will allow me to shape the speaker's output w/o munging the sound to hell and gone but still, I don't need this for the Celestions. I cannot logically explain this, and don't know whether to try to have the Gallos professionally checked out or to just sell them.

I like their look, but I need to hear these things, and until I figure out why there's such a clear difference between them and a pair of 25 year old Celestions (and figure out how to address that difference) I simply cannot listen to them.

I'm at wit's end, and would greatly appreciate any advice save "sell them to me for chump change", or "put them 5' out from the wall". Both are non-starters.
rg500g
10 responses Add your response
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
Stick with the Celestions until you get out of that room - problem solved...

-RW-
doggiehowser
672 posts
 
The Gallos IIRC have side firing bass drivers. I can't recall if the pairs are mirror imaged. If they are you might want to see if you can swap them around.

This way you might help prevent side wall reflections from the bass driver.

If you have to place the speakers too near the side walls, try to use some good absorbers on the sides and backs to minimise reflections, and again at the first reflection point.
martykl
3,578 posts
 
The Gallo tweeter has IIRC 300+ degrees of dispersion. It's possible (likely?) that the system has been voiced for reflected energy that would be expected from nearby walls. You don't have those nearby walls,, so the lack of such energy might make the speaker go dull. The Celestion, OTOH, has a tradional tweeter that provides the bulk of its energy on axis. That might explain a lot, but it's just a guess.

BTW, if the Celestion subwoofer was placed properly, it will provide smooth bottom end response while the Gallo woofers will have unpredictable peaks and valleys since the speakers were placed far from the walls. You might be getting some combination of bass destruction/reinforcement that exacerbates the sense of diminished high end response. Again, just a guess.
martykl
3,578 posts
 
To clarify - nearby walls means nearby side walls, since the 60 degrees of non-rsponse from the Gallo tweeters is at their rear. If I read the OP correctly, it sounds like the speakers are close to the wall behind, but not the sides.
rg500g OP
17 posts
 
I think the most actionable guidance is to stick with the Celestions until I can get out of the basement. Death of spouse or marriage may be critical predecessor event though, or I convince spouse to move so she can have a decent home office (weak excuse) and I can have a stereo room (the real reason). I'm so torqued up over this I'm considering an equalizer. I had one in the late '70s and it was magic on an Advent speaker, but god knows now.
sandstone
358 posts
 
This may sound odd, but as another option to try, I've actually heard of the Gallo's being used in a corner placement. This might even allow you to get away with a bit closer wall location. Be sure to diffuse the first wall reflection as mentioned above.

Above all, sure hope that coming back to the problem on a better day, maybe aided with your favorite beverage and some great tunes, will restore the Fun Factor to your experimenting.
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
Sometimes a shitty room is just a shitty room, no fixes possible. However, one thing that has not been mentioned is the use of something like Trinnov or Dirac room correction.

The Trinnov can be had by purchasing a Sherbourn 972 receiver for around $500. Dirac sells a standalone unit for about $20k - OUCH! However, Emotiva is supposedly soon releasing the XMC-1 preprocessor with a Dirac implementation. This will cost you $2k.

Finally, try facing the woofers in on you Gallos and then experiment with toeing in the speakers. Start extreme and work your way out, see if that helps...

PS: I have Ref. 3.1s and Ref. AVs, hence my suggestions...

-RW-
rlwainwright
1,904 posts
 
Ooooops! I meant Sherwood R972 receiver. Sorry about that. Here's a guy selling one for $500 delivered:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1423485/sherwood-r-972-trinnov-like-new

-RW-
tgrisham
1,291 posts
 
Might I suggest one more idea and it is free. Sumiko Master Set method of speaker placement for your Gallos. Make the speakers play the room. The other idea is to write Gallo for suggestions. Both are free.
rg500g OP
17 posts
 
Well, I found the fix - Focal Arai 926 speakers. I was kicking myself as I bought them because they are HUGE for he room and I just knew they'd sound horrible but I couldn't help myself. Actually, they trounced the Gallos wholeheartedly, and the Celestions, which sounded so sweet at lower listening levels, became screeching harpies at higher listening levels (Montrose demands a certain SPL) whereas the Focals just pumped out clean sound that didn't make me wince above 5KHz. I'm done.
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