Gallo Reference 3.1 questions...

We all know that listening to speakers before buying is a must, but getting that out of the way I would like to ask a couple of questions to those who have listened to these speakers, and have placed them in different settings.

My room is 11' wide and 17'long. The room is carpeted and it serves as a theater as well as my music room, I do not enjoy the economic benefit or the extra room for separate systems, for that reason I have to make compromises in order to accommodate both movies and listening to music into a single room in order to enjoy my hobby as best as I possibly can.

I currently own the Arcam 350 receiver which I use as a pre-amp in analog direct in conjunction with a bi-amped Bel Canto evo4 version II which produces 400 watts per channel at 8 ohms, and 600 watts at 6 ohms just for music, the receiver's amplification only kicks in when I watch movies to power the center and surround channels.

I think that the speakers that I now have in my set up (Paradigm 100v3) are very good speakers, but I have a tendency to listen to music 70% of the time against 30% movie watching. I also have to place the Paradigms too close to the walls because of the room size as well as the screen size as they will get in the way when watching a movie. I do not know how good the Paradigm will compare against the Gallos in a large room where there's plenty of breathing room for them to shine, but in my situation with limited space and based on some of your experiences, Will the Gallos give me a less congested sound than the Paradigms?, which seem to be too big for my room? (I also have 2 rows of 3 recliners seats each for movie watching)

And the toughest question of them all, and this question is posted with all honesty, as I am always searching for better sound to enjoy the music that I love. Are the Gallos simply a more refined and sophisticated speaker for critical music listening than the paradigms?

Your educated help will make my decision a more pleasant one.

Thank you for your response. I'm looking for effortless and open sound. I feel that The Paradigms in my room sound congested, They may be too big for my room, but something is not right with the overall sound. The Gallos may be the answer.

Well, I finally got the Gallos 2 days ago, and with about 12 hours burn in they are already sounding better than the Paradigm studios ever did. Actually they sounded better than the Paradigms from the get go, specially the highs but the base still needs time to sound its best (I'm hoping)

If these speakers take as long as people claim to break in and indeed they get that much better with time, then they will walk all over the digms, and the 100s are not bad speakers at all.

Is there a review on Stereophile magazine on these speakers? One would think that a speaker with this kind of buzz would be a priority.

The 6moons in depth reviews were key in my decision to buy these speakers, and I have read several very positive reviews on the Gallo reference speakers from other publications as well. 6moons seems to pretty much say what they really think about a product, but still wonder why would a big magazine name like Stereophile would miss the opportunity to review them, not that what they say would make a difference to any of us, but still interesting.

So basically putting a $3,000 speaker on their "A" list would not look good next to the $30,000 one. I guess it's strictly business. I'm sure some dealers would feel the same way.

To me changing from the Paradigm 100v3 to the Gallos was like buying my whole CD collection on SACD and more. How is it possible for these speakers to make cds sound better than SACDs were on the Paradigms? I'm impressed.

I see from a previous post that you did not like the Gallos, I guess it all depends on what you have compared it to. The reference 3.1 have made a significant difference in my system, specially the highs, the tweeters on the Paradigm have nothing to do with these. I never thought I could hear musical violins coming out of a cd, well I was mistaken, it was all in the speakers and the whole notion of looking for a better cd player has disappeared. No cd player can make up for the difference in sound quality with the paradigms against what I have experienced with this speaker change.

I have about 65 hours on them and everything sounds much better when compared to the Paradigms which I still have.

I think the Paradigms are very good speakers, specially what they give you for the money, I also believe that a bigger room would have given them a chance to perform better within my system. The Gallos are priced a little higher than the digms but the sound gap in favor of the reference is much bigger. The Gallos are so musical, it's just hard to put into words.

Bostonbean, I don't know if you misunderstood my thread or I misunderstood your answer, I am extremely happy with the way the gallos handle the highs, compared to the Paradigm they are much better, if they get better later on that will be just icing on the cake.

My sister and brother in law came the other day, and to say that they have square ears is to minimize their lack of sensibility about anything resembling sound. they were amazed at the sound these speakers reproduced, and they had been listening to the paradigms for a while and never said a word.

Ok, got it.