[The13thGryphon]

Does anyone out there own a pair of Anthony Gallo Reference 3 speakers? I’m very interested to hear your thoughts on the speakers, and how you would describe their sound qualities.

For the last couple of years, as my wife and I have been building our new home, we’ve been planning out our dedicated media room (22 x 18.5 x 8.5 feet). We listened to dozens and dozens of speakers, and finally settled on Magnepan. There’s just something incredibly lifelike and transparent about Maggie speakers. Something so right that the music just grabs you and won’t let go… something that hits you on a deep emotional level.

However, I have also just recently had a chance to very briefly hear a pair of Gallo Ref 3’s, and had the same type of reaction. Sound so real it was spooky! Obviously I’m going to have to listen to them for a longer period, and with material that I’m familiar with… but I’d love to hear back from anyone with experience with the Reference 3’s, particularly if you’re also familiar with Maggies.

[ajzepp]

I'm a Magnepan lover, myself.....I have yet to hear the Ref 3s, but I did hear the Dues with the Gallo sub. I think the main thing I liked about it was the better off-axis sound than the Maggies, and I was quite fond of the little CDT tweeter. The Gallo 3 is one of the speakers Maggie owners gravitate toward. I don't know if that's much help to you, but the sales guy did say that the Dues/sub give a decent idea of what the Gallo sound is like. I really don't think the CDT tweeter is better than the Maggie Ribbon, but then again you have to drop 4k on Maggies to get it, whereas you can get the Gallo 3s for 3k or less.

[Horizons]

Depends on what you value.

I have the Maggie 1.6QRs and heard the Gallos for a few hours. On balance, I prefer the Maggies for the following reasons.

1. Bigger soundstage. The Gallos image wide but not tall. I felt you almost had to listen on the floor. Stand up and the Gallos sound average.

2. Realistic mid-bass. There is a certain area in the mid bass where the Maggies kill almost all cones.  The Gallo goes deeper but doesn't sound as natural to my ears.

If there were no Magnepan, I would probably buy the Gallos or Vandersteens.

[KKM]

I am a former owner of the Maggie 3.6 , for 5 years, and now own the Gallo 3.1. Like many speakers there are strengths and weaknesses, but overall, I enjoy the Gallo’s more due to their ability to portray live reproduction and musical impact. Mines hasn’t even been fully broken in yet.

The design of the Gallo’s is rather ingenious. They eliminated or minimize all the flaws associated with most speaker design like parallel walls, baffle, minimal xover, and coloration from large enclosures. There are many great speakers that have those in their design, but then you have to redesign and add cost back in to minimize their effects. Many speakers spend up to 70% (some more) of the cost on enclosures to thicken the walls, use material that minimize resonance, brace enclosure, line and stuff with sound absorption, multiple coatings of paint and lacquer, expensive xover parts (no matter how expensive, if you can design one that doesn’t use one or minimal xover use, the better). I prefer to purchase a speaker from a company that focus their R&D on music reproduction then to focus on giving me a beautiful enclosure, if I want beautiful furniture, I’ll go to Thomasville. And in the case of Magnepan there is no enclosure, which is one reason they sound so palpable.

Some of the difference that I hear between the Gallo’s and Maggies are:

Bass: The bass from the Gallo’s have much more of a presence and impact, there’s no surprise here, one of the well known weaknesses of Magnepan speakers is their ability to reproduce the bass the hits you in the guts. The Maggies do go low at times, but sometime it is more of a one bass note or a drone, whereas the Gallo’s can sweep you with layers of articulate bass and impactful whacks.

Treble: This is a toss up, they both reproduce the highs very well, better then any tweeter that I’ve encountered. They both have that airy realistic shimmer when playing the high frequencies. The Gallo’s have much better dispersion by design, whereas the Maggies are relegated to a narrow listening area. They both have the advantage of minimal interaction with the ceiling and floors compared with a typical round tweeter. Would love to hear the B&W diamond tweeter to see it compares with these 2 design.

Midrange: Toss up again, maybe slight advantage to the Maggies.

Driver integration and dipole vs monopole: Surprise to me here, to my ears the Gallo’s drivers integrate very well and sound seamless even though material, size, and shape are different. Personally, I hear some textural differences between the Magnepan ribbon driver and main panels (not necessarily differences big enough to call "discontinuities," but audible differences nevertheless). Thus, with Magnepans, I rarely lose the sense of there being two distinct types of planar drivers at work. In contrast, there is no crossover at all (at least not in the usual sense) between the Gallo midrange drivers and tweeter, so that even though these drivers are made of dissimilar materials and use different operating principles, they do an amazingly good job of speaking with one common voice.. One other though I had regarding the the wave launch from the different drivers. Carefully and properly positioned, dipoles can sound pretty amazing, but there is no getting around the fact that managing their output to the rear is a tricky proposition--one that sometimes involves tradeoffs (as in discovering that the room position that optimizes bass extension may or may not yield the best overall imagining and soundstaging). By contrast, the Gallos are very easy to place for good results, and their imaging/soundstaging is relatively foolproof (provided you keep them away from nearby reflective surfaces). With the dipole effect from Maggie, you get that airy and sultry sound that so many people love, but in real life how many instruments launch sound equally to the front and back? The Gallo’s in this sense portray a more realistic sound wave source and size. Reproduction from a bugle, drum, clarinet, etc, is better from a small point source then from a large panel. But the sound of a grand piano is intoxicating from the Maggies.

Soundstage: They both have tremendous strengths in this area, throwing a huge soundstage and rendering live performance right in front of you. Of course the Maggies win the image height contest, you’re ok if you’re seated with the Gallo’s, but stand up and you lose it. They are both very holographic but I find the Gallo’s pinpoint imaging better, this could be due to the size of the Maggies. The size of the Maggies seems to be an issue with reproducing some music and sound. I find that when listening to solo musical instrument or people, it is literally bigger then life as mentioned before.

Overall sound: One area that the Maggies do not do as well is when playing complex musical passages that involve a lot of instruments, especially rock. The separation from the Gallos’s provide better instrument identity and placement. They are superb with all genres of music. The Maggies do very well with jazz, small percussion band, and solo, also classical sounds nice and large. Gallo’s sound great at low or high volume, Maggies mostly at the higher volume. One area that I miss about Maggies is that you can’t beat their wall of sound during HT duties. The sound puts you in the middle of the action.

Other considerations: Maggies are very difficult to place and they do dominate the room. I eventually grew tire of their looks, maybe because more then a few people said “what are those doors doing in the middle of the room?” The Gallo’s material and construction are first rate, they’ll last a lifetime. The enclosure grill looks like a DIY’fer could replace if it gets bang up, so it is very kid friendly.

Both require long break-in to sound their best. There are plenty of glowing reviews out there on both, although mostly on the Gallo 3 not 3.1. Good luck on your search, it really depends on your ears.

[The13thGryphon]

Wow! I want to thank all three of you (ajzepp, Horizons, and KKM) for your responses... but especially KKM. That is a highly detailed and articulate summation, and is very much appreciated.

You captured exactly what I believe I was hearing, but stated it in a far more coherent manner than I would have been able to do myself. I believe that both the Maggies and the Anthony Gallo Ref 3 have unique strengths, especially in their price range, along with some weaknesses (minor in my situation and opinion).

I'm definitely going to have to find a way to do some more in-depth listening to the Reference 3s, and then make a decision between the two. The media room, and thus these speakers, will be utilized approximately 50/50 for music and movies; so I don't want to sacrifice one aspect of their performance for elevated performance in one medium or the other... it is important that I put together a balanced system that will do justice to both music and movies.

Thanks again for your input.

[carusoracer]

Nice write ups to read above...
My first impression of Maggies was 5 years ago. I was spooked by how "live" they sounded,but I could not come to grips with the looks 24/7

I too was on the hunt for several speakers and the best advice any person could give is to take into account what reviewers are not saying and listen to every type of music possible and every speaker on your list.
 
Make a CD with a very widerange of recordings and a good shop will just give you the remote and visit you every now and then. On the demo disc the tracks should show the complete musical range of instruments,sounds,voices and in your case HT special effects. The tracks on that demo disc should be no longer than 2 minutes in length. If possible request beforehand what type of gear is used and if the shop has both speakers ,request so that you can A/B the different speakers right there. The best of all is an in home demo if possible. It is simply absurd to go to a showroom and listen to an all SS 15k system when you may have tubes or integrated components with your HT. Nor will you ever be driving these speakers with 10k amps. Maggies will produce big HT effects like the Gallos. A lot of people still enjoy a seperate sub woofer for the subtereanean moments. You can add that with Maggies but is very tricky to integrate and not lose the Midrange magic. The Gallos will go down to 22hz with the Sub Amp.
 What many and all writers except notable "Sixmoons" come to mind, is what type of gear do you need to achieve that sound you heard in the store  I was lucky enough to be traveling on business extensively and was able to listen to many speakers. The Gallos were not very high on my list(at first). Also when reading reviews pay very close attention to what the sidebar lists for the reviewers equipment. With that said in every in instance you will note that it is critical to match the Maggies with a very good Amplifier to meet the demands. I was fortunate enough to hear the Maggies in 3 different showrooms,all driven with different gear,same speaker model. Of course they sounded similar in each different room, but the last shop where I was able to A/B the Maggies and the Gallos we switched sources several times, 3 seperate Amps. You cannot simply drive Maggies with a pretty albeit Low power SET amp. Huge difference in sound. The most consistant comparision was using a very nice Arcam HT unit in 2900 range but it provided the current,damping,power needed to make both speakers happy. From there I could really spend sometime actually listening to the music and not the equipment. Speakers and what drives them are the biggest factors along with room treatments to providing great sound.

 There are some great forums members here and great ideas but not one person can ever make the choice except you and your other. I was down to 3 speakers: Von Schweikert VR4jrs easiest to drive, Maggies and Gallo ref 3. What pushed me over the edge was going to a concert Friday night and then Sat afternoon listening for 2 hrs in a very good Boutique. It finally became apparent what qualities in a speaker did I want to hear and feel with emotion with out spending too much money. For me it was the Ref's 3s. They are very versatile but sound even better with the Sub Amp and a high current power amplifier.YMMV

Good luck

[ajzepp]

13th: Here's a link to a review over at the Maggie forum.....
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/MUG/messages/92590.html

[KKM]

I think this is the first review of the Gallo 3.1 at 6Moons:

http://6moons.com/audioreviews/gallo5/ref31_3.html

[RDaneel]

Wow - that's the first negative review I've read about the Ref 3s... very interesting...

[djbnh]

I think this is the first review of the Gallo 3.1 at 6Moons:

http://6moons.com/audioreviews/gallo5/ref31_3.html

Wow - that's the first negative review I've read about the Ref 3s... very interesting...

I'm a little confused here - the provided link takes one to the 6moons article in which the Ref 3.1s get a Lunar Eclipse Award from John Potis. However, RDaneel's post says its the first negative review he's read. What review was RDaneel reading???

[KKM]

He was probably referring to the AJZEEP's link to AA review, the post right before my post to the 6moons review.

[RDaneel]

Sorry - I meant the user review on the Maggie forum was negative, the 6moons review if of course glowing...

[The13thGryphon]

13th: Here's a link to a review over at the Maggie forum.....
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/MUG/messages/92590.html

Well, I guess I'm not entirely surprised that a review on the MUG forum, from a former Maggie owner, wouldn't be entirely positive.

I think this is the first review of the Gallo 3.1 at 6Moons:

http://6moons.com/audioreviews/gallo5/ref31_3.html

I do find it interesting that the "professional" review is so much more glowing.

With that said in every in instance you will note that it is critical to match the Maggies with a very good Amplifier to meet the demands. I was fortunate enough to hear the Maggies in 3 different showrooms,all driven with different gear,same speaker model. Of course they sounded similar in each different room, but the last shop where I was able to A/B the Maggies and the Gallos we switched sources several times, 3 seperate Amps. You cannot simply drive Maggies with a pretty albeit Low power SET amp.

I'm still undecided as to the Maggie vs Gallo Ref3 question. I have been very impressed with both brands. I'm just going to have to spend a lot of time reading, investigating, and ultamately listening before I decide. However, I also am curious as to whether my amps will do a set of Maggies justice?

I heard my first pair of Maggies on Mark Levinson amplification. Humungous ML monoblocks costing around $10,000 each! That's a little out of my price range, so I asked to hear them on something else. The salesman then set them up on a 2-channel Rotel amp - an RB-1090 I beleive. The sound seemed to change just slightly. Not quite as liquid and refined, but still strikingly lifelike. Maybe the change was psychosomatic... I didn't get to here them side by side, and possibly I expected there to be a change for the worse. Who knows? The Rotel is much more in line with my fiscal abilities, and I think would make me very happy.

The third time I heard Maggies they were powered by one of the newer Anthem Statement amps... I can't recall which. Anyway, it sounded fantastic. I believe that the Anthem is probably somewhere in between the Mark Levinson and the Rotel in terms of quality and price.

Anyway, my amps are as follows:
2-channel Harman Kardon Citation 22 "High Current" amp able to deliver 200 watts per channel into either 8 or 4 ohms (20Hz to 20KHz) through selectable "high voltage" or "high current" output. The The amp is also rated to deliver up to 800 watts dynamic power into a 2 ohm load. This amp would be utilized for the main left and right channels.

My second amp is a Harman Kardon Signature 2.1 and is able to deliver 5 channels x 100 watts into 8 ohms, or 150 watts into 4 ohms (20Hz to 20KHz).

What do you think? Any feedback on whether these amps will drive a pair of Magneplanars adaquately?

[marvda1]

high current from the late 80's and early 90's is not the same as high current today, i had two high current citation 24(100 watts) bi-amping paradigm studio 60 v2 speakers and a couple of years ago bought a denon pma 2000ivr 80 watt integrated high current amp and it kicked the citations butts. yesterdays high current is todays entry level.

[The Zard]

I have owned the Gallo Ref 3's since late 2004. After the break-in period I felt the speakers were not high enough for my tastes and room situation. Early in Jan 2005 I ordered the Bright Star dedidcated Ref 3 speaker stands. They are not a tweak add on but necessary (for my preference) to get the best possible sound out of the Gallo's. TAS came out later in 2005 and reached the same conclusion. Downside is the cost $500 and the fact that you now have a 100lb speaker that is awkward to move. Still, if you want the best possible performance this is a real solution.

The Mod Wright SE preamp synergies extreamly well with the Gallo's.
I know that there are better speakers and preamps out there but I wonder if the costs justify the results?

System:  http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=systems;system=493

[NealH]

The Harmon Kardon 22 is getting a bit long in the tooth now but, it was a fine amplifier in it's day and, still is for that matter.  It is all discrete design and utilizes very little global feedback in it's topology.  I remember doing comparisons between it and, a Mark Levinson 27 years ago.  The HK sounded just fine - in some respects better than the ML.

Today's modern amplifier will exhude a bit more refinement and, a bit less transistory sound.  This is a good thing.  But, the differences are are not all that great considering the model 22 that you have.   The HK 22 has fine drive so, don't buy in to the "it won't deliver enough output current" hype.  It will likely deliver all you need and more.   Get the speakers first then, take your time and audition amplifiers.  I particularly like the Magnepan 3.6.  And, I also like the Gallo Ref. 3.  A tough call.

[The13thGryphon]

I have owned the Gallo Ref 3's since late 2004. After the break-in period I felt the speakers were not high enough for my tastes and room situation. Early in Jan 2005 I ordered the Bright Star dedidcated Ref 3 speaker stands. They are not a tweak add on but necessary (for my preference) to get the best possible sound out of the Gallo's. TAS came out later in 2005 and reached the same conclusion. Downside is the cost $500 and the fact that you now have a 100lb speaker that is awkward to move. Still, if you w ...

Hmmm, that puts the Reference 3s price much closer to the cost of the Mangepan MG-3.6s; doesn't it? That makes the call even harder, as I was hoping maybe I'd found something part way between the Maggie 1.6QRs and the 3.6s.

The Harmon Kardon 22 is getting a bit long in the tooth now but, it was a fine amplifier in it's day and, still is for that matter. It is all discrete design and utilizes very little global feedback in it's topology. I remember doing comparisons between it and, a Mark Levinson 27 years ago. The HK sounded just fine - in some respects better than the ML.

Today's modern amplifier will exhude a bit more refinement and, a bit less transistory sound. This is a good thing. But, the differences are are not all that great considering the model 22 that you have. The HK 22 has fine drive so, don't buy in to the "it won't deliver enough output current" hype. It will likely deliver all you need and more. Get the speakers first then, take your time and audition amplifiers. I particularly like the Magnepan 3.6. And, I also like the Gallo Ref. 3. A tough call.

That's pretty much what I'm planning... getting the speakers first and then doing a lot of ampliphier listening to see 1) whether I can actually hear a difference, and 2) how much I'd have to spend to get something significantly better.

Thanks for all your input and suggestions everyone. It is very much appreciated.

[ajzepp]

13th:

Just in case you want additional feedback on the Gallos from a NON-Maggie guy, here is another take: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=16259

[fu_man]

My advice on the Gallos would be to try to demo them  with your own gear.   After  reading the glowing reviews -esp. 6moons - i had almost convinced  myself  that they would be a  domestically  acceptable  replacement to my  Martin Logan CLS11 and  REL  Storm setup.  I love my current  speakers, but thought maybe i could get the *same* sound from something new/reliable, smaller, and able to 'rock' (which the ML's dont) My wife mocked me  for thinking of  buying something i havent heard.... so I got  my first  chance to hear them at the London HiFi show - after that i  almost  wrote them off totally.  But  given the reviews, i listened to them again during a  stopover in Singapore.  With a different  system and set up they were definately better... a  good second  system.  Subsequently  i  have heard them well set up at  a local dealer with both KR Audio VA 340s and Nurforce 8's amps.   Here they were very impressive.  I'm not  even going to try to give any sort of  analysis, only to say that my personal impression of the Gallos has  ranged from awful to  excellent.  I do believe that with a decent audition, at home for at least a week, i may change my mind but for my tastes and bias - they wont  replace the ML's

[john1970]

I agree with a previous post the stands are absolutely necessary and at $500 not cheap!  I auditioned the Gallo Ref 3 without the stands and I found it necessary to sit on the floor to hear optimal treble.  In summary:

Strengths:
1) nice dynamic mids
2) excellent treble with wide dispersion
3) tight bass due to the use of a SEALED enclosure.  (Gallo acoustics deserves a lot of credit for not using a more efficient and less accurate port design).

Weakness:
1) Without the stands the tweeter is 31" from the floor; stands definitely required
2) Midrange resolution does not equal that of ribbons or electrostatics
3) Sub 30 Hz bass requires one to purchase an additional amp (~$900) to drive a second voice coil on the woofer
4) Overall if you are looking for a floorstanding speaker with sub 30 Hz bass the retail cost = $3000 + $900 + $500 = $4400!
5) Lastly, and entirely subjective, looks.  IMO they are ugly!