Gallo 3.5 vs Merlin VSM-MXe

I own Merlin VSMs and have heard the Gallo extensively (tho never owned a pair). There is a local dealer who sells both, and I have heard an A-B.

To my ear, they share many of the same strengths, but....

The Merlins are really special - one person's take, YMMV. I'd choose them every time.

For your needs, the Gallo might be a better idea. Both speakers are -IMHO- highly coherent, but the Gallo has significantly more weight below 100hz. If you double up on amps to co-drive the Gallo woofer, I'm told (never heard it) that the difference in that region increases even more.

Good Luck.

Marty

PS The ultra wide dispersion of the Gallo tweeter does lend it a particular character that many people love. It is distinctive tho, so check it out.

Only heard the Gallo is show conditions so my opinion of it is not too worth. Have owned two iterations of the VSMs the past nine years and they are to my way of listening the finest two-way speakers in the world, at minimum, highly competive with any two-way speakers in the world. You mention coherence, well that is their bread and butter. You can go to audioreview.com and see what a few hindred people have to say about Merlin VSMs - they are that good, and if you don't crave, need, or want the very bottom octave that you can get with much larger speakers with 12" woofers, you can live happily with them for a long time and build the rest of your system around them - what many Melrin owners do.

I must admit Marty, when I said weight, I really meant more richness. The Gallo's tweeter can be so clean, that sometimes I feel it's a little crisp / lean? Could also be my room (lots of glass to which I will add Marigold window dots soon), and could be my cables? Speaker cables are Audience AU24e. I want clean, detailed and lively, but with some richness too.

IME, the Merlin is notably leaner than the Gallo. The Gallo tweeter is definitely distinctive sounding, tho I've never heard it go "crisp". It does have very wide dispersion, so lots of reflective surfaces might well produce that effect. I've never heard the Gallo in such a room, so I'm just speculating.

My evaluation also could be due (at least in part) to the environment in which I heard the Gallo (I've owned the Merlins for more than decade; 4 different rooms and dozens of anicllaries in the system). The local dealer's set-up is probably inclined to diminish treble power response as the room is pretty highly treated with absorbtive materials.

Everyone hears these things in a personal way, but I wouldn't call the Merlins "rich" or "weighty". They are crazy, spooky realistic sounding in the mids, but do have a tendency to go lean in many set-ups. IMHO, careful placement and system matching are unusually critical in coaxing a satisfying octave to octave balance from the VSM.

I would add that I think that there are folks out there who take that idea way, way too far. I've successfully used SET amps, PP tubes, SS, etc with my VSMs. The 2 real points are:

1)The speaker is IME unusually transparent to everything upstream, so careful system matching is unusually important to ensure that you've optimized to your taste.

2) Many people find them lean in the upper bass and I understand that comment. In the right set-up, I don't find this to be much of an issue. However, it does take some effort to optimize your set-up for this parameter.

I'd never discourage anyone from Merlin, but your specific issue seemed to point the other way.

Just one more opinion.

Marty

I hear the Merlins the way Marty does. I think they do provide a fairly unobstruected view of the source with little editorial, you would need to find that with the amp, etc.