[Double Ugly]

Now with your $3k speakers and $20K amp (Monads I presume) combo, how can you tell where the actual weak point was? With a different speaker (not saying more $ or less), the $20K amp may have performed closer to the $100K amp, maybe not. We each just know what we like, our preference of sound, at what we are willing to pay for it.

The Monads were amazing with every speaker with which I heard them paired.  I own more than one pair of speakers and I've heard them drive others at trade shows, so there is some width and depth to the foundation upon which my perception of and beliefs about them is based.

As for the proverbial weak point, perception is reality; to me, there was no easily quantified "weak point" and I spent years looking for precisely nothing to change about the system.  The sound was simply superb from top to bottom IMO.  Since I'm the guy paying the bills and doing the listening, my opinion of my system is all that matters, right?

To ensure my position is clear, I'll say I've yet to hear an amp I like better than the Monads regardless of price, pedigree or specification.  They were special, and as luck would have it, I had just the speaker for them.

I believe the crux of our disagreement (for lack of a better word) lies in how we view the relationship between price and performance.  My experience is that the two are not in any way related, but your journey seems to have led you to a different conclusion.

[minimus]

If Gallo were a publicly traded company, I would sell their stock pronto.  They can price their upgraded speaker at $6K but the demand for luxury goods like high-end speakers is very elastic because there are so many substitutes, especially in that price range, and demand is shifting down fast because both income and wealth are plunging globally. 

When I walked into Sound By Singer in Manhattan, I could see the appeal of the Gallo business model.  The salespeople were marketing the Gallos as $3.5K "giant killers" that were just about as good as a lot of the $6K floor standers they carry, as long as you don't care about aesthetics or an occasionally hinky sound stage.  I suspect that the salespeople will now be shepherding the few people who walk through the door to the Audio Physic and DeVore listening room with the new Gallo 3.5s priced at $6K, regardless of how silver-tongued the new 6moons review is.

And the cost story is last year's news. Has anyone noticed what's happened to industrial commodity prices, global tanker shipping rates, and Chinese economic activity since last July?  I speak to a lot of manufacturers who outsource production to China.  The most common complaint is not that costs are high and rising but that production has become unpredictable since suppliers at the bottom end of the food chain are shuttering factories because of lack of demand.

[djbnh]

If Gallo were a publicly traded company, I would sell their stock pronto.  They can price their upgraded speaker at $6K but the demand for luxury goods like high-end speakers is very elastic because there are so many substitutes, especially in that price range, and demand is shifting down fast because both income and wealth are plunging globally. 

When I walked into Sound By Singer in Manhattan, I could see the appeal of the Gallo business model.  The salespeople were marketing the Gallos as $3.5K "giant killers" that were just about as good as a lot of the $6K floor standers they carry, as long as you don't care about aesthetics or an occasionally hinky sound stage.  I suspect that the salespeople will now be shepherding the few people who walk through the door to the Audio Physic and DeVore listening room with the new Gallo 3.5s priced at $6K, regardless of how silver-tongued the new 6moons review is.

And the cost story is last year's news. Has anyone noticed what's happened to industrial commodity prices, global tanker shipping rates, and Chinese economic activity since last July?  I speak to a lot of manufacturers who outsource production to China.  The most common complaint is not that costs are high and rising but that production has become unpredictable since suppliers at the bottom end of the food chain are shuttering factories because of lack of demand.

Wish I had penned my earlier comments as eruditely as above. Well said, IMO.

[launche]

http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/gallo09/opt.html

I can't seem to really get comfortable with the new outriggers, although they still appear to be tweaking the design.  It just looks odd to me, doesn't give the speakers any sense of foundation.