[KKM]

So Morty, what are your opinions after listening to them at the show?

[JackD]

Val

In Florida and Georgia, the Gallo distributor is a Car Audio distributor, something my dealer ran into. Only Audio he carries is Kenwood recievers and Adcom. Only other "high-end" product they carry is one of the major "projector" companies.  They kind of balked at my "Dealer/friend" because he was already on-line with Denon and Rotel, and another projection company.  Kind of left a "funny" taste in his mouth, so we decided to do nothing until he went to CEDIA and talked to the Gallo people face to face.  No matter how many pair he had pre-sold by word of mouth like mine and another pair, they wanted him to buy and keep a pair in-house, that he would not sell, had to be demo's even if his business was HT only and they didn't have the remaining parts of the 5.1, sytem for him to use.  As he is a custom, pre-construction mostly, installer, was a hard thing for him to deal with.  So as of know he is sticking with RBH, Polk and Phase Technology. Even though my closest authorized dealer in any direction was almost 4 hours away, they would not sell to me direct and wanted me to find someone to pick up the line.

[Val]

I visited the local dealer and he told me he didn't have any speakers or components for demo because he only sold systems by order and installed them. I am still on the fence but it's one of three speakers on my list, the other two being Paradigm S2 and ATC SCM12.

[Morty]

So Morty, what are your opinions after listening to them at the show?

Well, I spent two full days at the show. One of the first places I visited was Gallo of course.
They had a pretty modest stand, with the Gallo connected to a Moon I-5 amplifier and a Wadia CD player.
The (ugly) "hood" was still on the speakers and they did not allow me to take it  off.........
Well, at first I listened to the music samples that the Gallo-people themselves had chosen. Mostly plain Pop and as none of it was fmiliar to me I found it a bit difficult to evaluate the sound. But still, it did not really impress me. Maybe my excpectations were too high, I do not know, but the sound was not very open, the bass was a bit soft and the whole soundstage seemed "small" as if everything was a bit scaled down?...
I listened for an hour or so, and decided to go and get my own records at my hotel room.
So I did, only to discover that the Wadia they used, did not accept RW discs!
Shit. I had spent a whole week at home recording all my favourite tracks  into a few "test records" only to learn that I could use NONE of them at Gallo's stand!
I sat down for the second time and listened. Tried to find the open sound stage I was expecting and the good dynamics but frankly, this was nothing of the kind. Simply boring.
Could it be that the records these guyes had chosen, were all of "low quality".
To check this out, I went to the huge records section of the show, and bought some Chesky records. Also bought the Naim sample record that comes with one of the HiFi + mags.
A quick check of these records played through my portable CD player and my Grado SR 80,  revealed wonderful sound. Absolutely stunning!

Sharp loaded with these new state of the art discs, I returned to Gallo.
For another hour or so, I played many  tracks on them all.
First of all, the music was much better. (Mostly jazz) and, of course, I noticed also an improvement in the sound.
But still, what I heard was far from the wonders I had expected and far from the sound as I remember it from the Gallo Solo.
It simply did not open up.
Was it the Moon I-5?
I  left Gallo disapointed. A frend of mine had left long time ago.
We met  again later, listened to Maggie 1,6
Once again these speakers imprssed me with the openess and convincing sound stage.  But they are too big for my room and my wife does not like the shape.
I should also mention a "new comer" among speaker producers:
VIVID SPEAKERS. From South Africa!
They had a model named K1 conected to a pair of Hafler DM58.
Now thats what I call Playing Music!   What a dynamics, loads of details, apparently colourfree and a lovely punchy deep bass. To top it all, a design to die for.
Only concern is the price; £ 8.000,-
I will, however give Gallo a last chanse, as I am in contact with a Danish dealer, that has got a pair for demo.
It's a surround store(!!) so I am a bit worried as to what kind of electronics he will use?
Morty

[Val]

The Moon I-5 is very good.

Val

[Morty]

The Moon I-5 is very good.

Val

That is my impression too, but afterall, its only 2 x 70W, maybe Gallo 3 needs more to prove its forces?
Morty

[JackD]

Val

I talked to the Rep by phone and he could not give me the name of any dealer who had stock or who would be getting any unless I wanted to drive to a multi-store dealer in Atlanta area.  It appears that the dealers in in Fl/Ga were carrying the Micro and Dues lines as Bose alternatives and since there is no matching between the Ref 111's and these units for a complete system are not willing to stock unless they are pre-sold.  My dealer was the same way, and under there system, I didn't blame him.  I had to buy my pair and get him a committment for the second pair before it was feasible for him to order since the "looks" of the speaker made it a hit or miss proposition and was a "miss" with his spouse for use in their home instead of his RBH speaker system.  If he wanted to switch from Rotel and Denon, to Adcom and Kenwood, they "might" have been more flexible. lol

[tl1000sv]

I own a pair of Reference 3's and initially auditioned with with the Moon I-5.  Honestly, I didn't like the combo at all.  There was a serious dip in the lower midrange, which was less obvious when an Acurus A250 was switched in (but at a serious loss of soundstage).

I just finished reviewing the Aspen AKSA 100 Nirvana Plus (see the Aspen circle), and the combo is spectacular, but can run out of power depending on your room and volume preferences.

Bottom line, the Gallos are fantastic speaks, but as everything does, they need careful matching and setup to get the most out of them.

Tim

[Morty]

As earlier mentioned, I was so convinced that the Gallo III should be my new speakers, that I almost bought them without having listened to them, from a dealer in Denmark.
As the London Heathrow Expo came up, and later were available for demo in Denmark, I decided to postpone my purchase until I had heard them playing on familiar and well known music.
I ended up not bying the Gallos.
Instead, the Heathrow Expo put me on another, and far more expensive track: The South African VIVID K1.

These speakers impressed me at the London Show with a remarcable blend of good design - limited size - and full scale, open and natural sounding music.

I made a visit to a dealer in Frankfurth (WBS) and spent one full day in their listening room with this speaker (and Werner Barden.)
Voices are so natural. Dynamics are first class. The mid bass kicks just like live music does. And the tweeter is simply so airy and defined, I refuse to believe Beryllium or Diamonds or whatever, can do it much better. Laurence Dickie and his team has simply done a top notch engineering job here. All drivers are designed "in house" and it is easy to see the link to Bowers and Wilkins' Nautilus models.
But I have heard many of the B&W speakers and none sound so uncoloured and homogenous as the VIVI K1 does.
The design and finish are absolutely high end. Mine are Oyster Grey.
Check out the link:
http://www.vividspeakers.com/
The smaller B1 was tested in HiFi + and also HiFi Choice (December 04).
The price class is way out of the Gallo area, so this post may be a bit out of line.
But its my end of search for the ideal speaker and just wanted You to know.
Morty

[doug s.]

...Check out the link:
http://www.vividspeakers.com/
The smaller B1 was tested in HiFi + and also HiFi Choice (December 04).
The price class is way out of the Gallo area, so this post may be a bit out of line.
But its my end of search for the ideal speaker and just wanted You to know. ...

too bad i could never live w/something that looked like that, in my house...

ymmv,

doug s.

[ted_b]

Very nice.  What would you expect the K1's to sell for in US$$?

Ted

[Morty]

Very nice.  What would you expect the K1's to sell for in US$$?

Ted

The smaller B1 sells for 6.600 British pounds and the K1 is somewhat more expensive, I guess around 9000 ponds, In the US, this value corresponds to about US$ 15.000,-
As I said, a substantial leap up from the Gallo price level.

In my listening room, I have had many different speakers. Of course with different strong and weak sides. I loved the Gallo Solo for their  disappearing act and airy CDT unit. But I always disliked the boomy midbass and total lack of deep bass.
Their predecessor was the Finnish Amphion Xenon.  
Although they have some deep bass and definitely much MORE bass, the sidefiring woofer never really connected to my room. It was as if they only played each second tune of the lower part of the signal.
Worse was the somewhat harsh upper midrange so I cept them for a Year only. Then I had a dipole with 4 x 8 bass units each. A very deep (22 Hz) and natural sounding bass, from these, but very dry and lean. Sometimes unengaging too.  But the bass "connected" well to the room. And distributed the bass evenly around.

This is my point: I am scheptical to sidefiring woofers. How would the small enclosure sidefiring Gallo perform? I suspect it would be much like the Amphion or worse. From what I heard at the Heathrow demo, (without BAM) the bass was of the minimonitor class.
So, what about the VIVID bass?
Rather brilliant, if you ask me:
They have two (small) woofers firing forward, AND two equal mounted  back to back, firing backwards. In phase.
The result is that the bass connects beautifully to the room. Positioning is not critical in the usual way. The bass is good, regardless distance to the wall. Of course, almost any other parameter benefits with a meter or two in distance to back wall, but the bass will  distribute rather evenly around in the room, anyhow!
This is a very attractive and important facility!
I can sit in my sweet spot. Very good bass, reference punch and a wide open soundstage.
I can sit at my dining table (much further away) and enjoy a good meal; very good and deep bass and a fairly convincing soundstage.
Even in thje kitchen, everything sounds tonally correct. Who is singing in the living room right now, Isn't it Eddy? - who invited her?
Or put on the new CD "Deja Wu" with John Fogerty. It rocks like hell and places the man physically in the room,  at the same time. Few speakers manage this. Especially not at this size.

Ok, OK, this is enough bragging.

Gallo, Iam sure, is a wonderful construction and a killer for its price. But very very demanding when it comes to connect it to proper electronics.
Vivid is a truly high end speaker, with an astounding smooth and open sound, puncy and entertaining, and as far as I can judge, much less demanding when it comes to find a matching pre and power amp.
In the end, ..... well my chose speaks for itself.
   
Morty

[whopnyc]

I have my Ref 3s hooked up to a 40w/ch tube amp right now. Previously they were paired with a Sim I-5 which was mentioned a page or so ago.  Both sound fantastic in my smallish(12 ft x 12 ft or so) room.  I can see many prefering the Sim but I enjoy the tube sound from the Prologue 2.  Neither has run out of power but I don't listen much above 85 db.  The experiences Morty has written about are the complete opposite from what I hear.  My room is untreated.  I've heard them in one other setting and I can't figure out how you can make them sound as bad as Morty says.  The only other speaker I would have an interest in buying right now would be the Harbeth Compact 7 or other higher end Harbeth.

Bottom line...everyone's tastes are so different that relying on others advice alone is a really bad idea.

[Morty]

QUOTE:
Bottom line...everyone's tastes are so different that relying on others advice alone is a really bad idea.
UNQUOTE

Totally agree. Wouldn't dream of buying a speaker on others advice.