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.
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.
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.
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