[klh]

Have any of you heard either of these speakers (or any others from Gallo)? I've read several reviews on the Ref 3s and it appears to be something special (especially for the price). An HT setup with two Ref 3's and several Dues for the rest would probably great for a small to mid sized room. Thoughts?

[audioengr]

The only speaker that I have heard that does not need modding.  Very dynamic, live and great imaging.  Needs serious power and low output impedance to achieve tight bass, or you can just buy the optional bass amp.  Highly recommended.

[J North]

I agree on the serious power and bass issue.

The speaker looks tiny, but man, can it gobble up the watts!

The amp really needs to control the woofer otherwise the bass starts getting wooly and undefined. I'm not sure if the BASS module totally fixes this but you gotta think that if the main amp can't control the voice coil in the woofer that it drives, then you are still losing out even with the BASS amp added.

A bunch of us auditioned this speaker last weekend. It impressed us for the most part. Very clean and coherent midrange and detailed treble without any edge. It sounded great on both a 80wpc Vecteur and the 30wpc Audiomat Arpege. That is until we pushed the volume past "normal" listening levels. A 125wpc Vecteur did somewhat better.

When we hooked up the JVC ES1 it impressed us with decent bass (tightest grip) and loud play, but the tonality was off and the highs were a tad hard (I have found this with every speaker connected to the JVC).

My one complaint was that the 4" mids (with the tiny enclosures) did not provide full enough dynamics for certain sounds in the mix (like most drums). It was pretty easy to pick up once you started listening for it.

Otherwise a real impressive speaker at its price point!

The other star of the show was the Bent Audio NOH. When it was used as the volume control (replacing active preamps), much more of the music seemed to flow through and in a cleaner way - really added to the connection to the artist. Happens just about every time we have an audition so no suprise there.

Also, I understand Gallo is working on a center channel so you may want to consider that.

[J North]

One more thing about the Gallo's:

I wish they were tri-wirable:
1. Mids & Tweeters
2. Woofer voice coil #1
3. Woofer voice coil #2

[doug s.]

The only speaker that I have heard that does not need modding.  Very dynamic, live and great imaging.  Needs serious power and low output impedance to achieve tight bass, or you can just buy the optional bass amp.  Highly recommended.

i have never heard these speakers.  i may, soon - there's a local dealer, & i am curious about 'em.  but, re: modding, contrary to them not needing any, i have heard that these speakers will benefit from mods even more than most other speakers.  and, that's from professionals...

doug s.

[J North]

Doug S,

That's very interesting. Can you share with us what these mods might be?


One that I can think of is to maybe get rid of the tweeter gain switch if it is in the signal path. It was real handy during auditioning though if the source was too bright, but I would sooned balance the rest of the system out than have to rely on that switch.

[doug s.]

Doug S,

That's very interesting. Can you share with us what these mods might be?


One that I can think of is to maybe get rid of the tweeter gain switch if it is in the signal path. It was real handy during auditioning though if the source was too bright, but I would sooned balance the rest of the system out than have to rely on that switch.

i wish i could, but my source sez it's secret, only to be revealed at the 2005 ces.  but, that's pretty soon, so you'll not havee too long to wait.     this is in addition to typical speaker x-over mods, which i also understand make a big difference w/these speakers.

doug s.

[Ric Schultz]

I am currently working up mods on a Gallo Reference III that is going to be displayed at CES....maybe someone else is also doing mods?  The mods I will be doing are going to be extensive....you won't believe the outcome....there are a couple of mods that can be done to the speakers that are external and can be done by any user that make serious difference.   I cannot divulge these free tweaks till after the show.  I will post them here and on my website.  I will have all the mods done and detailed on my site by Christmas.  I have to have them done by then so we can ship in time.  I disagree strongly with Audioengineer about not needing modding.  There is only so much you can do at the $2600 retail price point with speakers being made in China.   I have no price point.  I am going to tweak the @$#* out of it!  Happy Holidays everyone!

[doug s.]

I am currently working up mods on a Gallo Reference III that is going to be displayed at CES....maybe someone else is also doing mods?  The mods I will be doing are going to be extensive....you won't believe the outcome....there are a couple of mods that can be done to the speakers that are external and can be done by any user that make serious difference.   I cannot divulge these free tweaks till after the show.  I will post them here and on my website.  I will have all the mods done and detailed on my sit ...

thanks, ric, i thought you mite wanna chime in here!  

regards,

doug s.

[Ric Schultz]

By the way, the speaker requires at least 2-300 hours of hard driving before it reaches its sound potential.  If you only play normal mid level volumes the speaker will never burn in.  You must play super loud 90+db for hours and hours.  If you can leave the speaker on all day while your away, or in my case all night (no neighbors) then you can get 8 hours of hard music on them each day.  The pair that Absolute Sound reviewed was competely burned in before submission.  So, most stores don't have a fully burned in pair to display and may never display the stock speaker in all its glory.  Out of the box they are not very good: bright, tubby and very colored.  First the treble gets better then the midrange and finally the bass.  Perhaps the pair that J North heard was not fully burned in, hence the comments about bass/mid dynamics.

The speakers cannot be tri-wired for they have a series crossover between the woofer and mid/tweet.

[J North]

Ric,

The pair we heard was a well worn in demo pair.

They did play loud, but I will repeat, did not have the same viseral impact on drums (ie snare, tomtom) that most regular box speakers I have heard.

I think the small drivers and enclosures work for the Gallos in many many respects, but limit the dynamic impact (similar to many planar speakers) compared to a speaker with 6" mids with some air behind it.

I find the Gallos to be a good compromise between planars and box speakers. But as always, compromise does not always get you the best of both.

I look forward to hearing your modded Gallos!

[jeffreybehr]

One that I can think of is to maybe get rid of the tweeter gain switch if it is in the signal path. It was real handy during auditioning though if the source was too bright, but I would sooned balance the rest of the system out than have to rely on that switch.

I heard a pair (driven still by all-Audio Research tubed gear) at the local dealer again this week.  He said that current production will not have the tweeter switch (and, presumably, the multiple output taps of the coupling/stepup transformer).  This pair I'd classify as sounding good to very good but not great at anything except disappearing--and definitely not good enough to pry my AmEx card loose.  This dealer also discounts the need for extensive break-in; maybe that's why his sound only so-so.

The Quad 989s are another story--they're simply spectacularly great sounding--jaw-droppingly so.  Lots of great-sounding bass well into the bottom octave, and they do indeed 'disappear' and simply present the huge soundstage of a real orchestra in a real hall.  The holografic voices are (again...sorry) jaw-droppingly gorgeous.  Even my golden-eared friend loves them.

[Ric Schultz]

I must say again that unless the speaker has tons (at least 200 hours) of high volume (above 90db) listening on it you are not hearing the stock speakers potential (by the way, Anthony Gallo agrees on this totally).  However, the modded speaker will do everything way better (once burned in, of course) than the stock speaker.  Bass, dynamics, midrange palpability, imaging, detail, transient response, air, speed, high frequency purity and extension, etc. etc.   Probably 33% of the mods I am going to do have already been listened to by Mark Hampton of ZCable and some of the mods have been listened to by another audio professional who is intimately familiar with the speaker.  The things I am going to do are going to take it to another level.   I will be starting today on my pair....cannot wait to hear how they turn out.   What is so amazing to me about these speakers is how good they can sound stock, expecially for the money and how little space they take up and how cute they are.  And with a little help, my sense is that they will be quite amazing.  We shall see......or, we shall hear.

[oeno]

I'd like to also chime in on the need to burn these speakers in. When I first got my pair it had maybe 20 hours (it was a demo pair that the dealer had had for at least two months). I then had a friend burn it in for me at high volumes (95db+) for 40 or so more hours  I then took them back put in on 24/7 at medium volumes for 3 more days. At that point I listened critically and heard a flashy speaker that disappeared easily, images great and sounded electronic, hard and amusical--and the bass was wooly and soft. Then, after 40 or so more loud hours, the sound changed and dramatically. It was as if a switch had been thrown--the speakers became open, airy and musical. The treble was no longer hard, and the midrange and upper bass meshed. Music sounded natural, relaxed. I wanted to listen to it and didn't have to think about that, whereas before I had to stop myself from getting out of the room. Now, at this point, the low bass is still not quite there, in terms of definition and texture, but the rest of the sound is. So however and whereever you hear these speakers, make sure they have at least 100 hours of loud playing on them before arriving at any definitive judgements.

[doug s.]

speakers such as these should really be run hard by the mfr prior to shipping, imo.  most folk likely will have *never* heard these things properly broken in.  seems a shame, really...

doug s.

[ctviggen]

Now, I can believe that there's such a thing as speaker break-in, but I find it very hard to believe that you have to play a speaker at X dB for Y time or else it'll never break in.  That just doesn't make sense.  Plus, who could possibly play these for 200 hours (that's over 8 DAYS) at 90dB?  I don't even like to listen to test tones at 85dB; there's no way I could play them at 90dB for 8 days straight.

[jeffreybehr]

I don't even like to listen to test tones at 85dB; there's no way I could play them at 90dB for 8 days straight.

Indeed; me too.  That's why I would drive them fairly hard when I'm not home.  I'd even close the musicroom door so the noise isn't too loud for the dogs.

[suits_me]

Green Mountain Audio offers a 150 hour break-in option on their speakers for $150. It's for apartment dwellers who can't get away with that. Their designer thinks his speakers, anyway, must be played this loud for so long - use at lesser volumes for longer times won't ever result in them breaking in....

Alternatively, you stick your new speakers in the basement playing loudly facing one another with a sound blanket over them during days.

[doug s.]

...Alternatively, you stick your new speakers in the basement playing loudly facing one another with a sound blanket over them during days.

aren't you supposed to connect one speaker out of phase, when you do this, to minimize sound level?

doug s.

[Val]

aren't you supposed to connect one speaker out of phase, when you do this, to minimize sound level?

I have done it with small box speakers and it works, but it probably wouldn't with the Gallos's because of their physical form.