Gallo reference /TAS vs Me

I share your impressions of the Gallo's. They were OK, but were not what TAS described. The mid-range was a bit vieled and the upper bass region was muddied. I went to the dealer expecting to purchase a pair of these speakers, but instead bought some Audio Note AN-Es (new AN-Es cost me $2,500). In my opinion, it wasn't even close. The Audio Note's simply outclassed the Gallo's and were far more musically engaging. I think your hearing is OK.

Jeffreybehr,

I have a small listening room and the bass extension is excellent without the subwoofer amp so I won't need to add that to the Gallos.

I auditioned Gallo's with MF gears .. they were better than Thiels, B&W 7 series, Joseph audio's and few others in that price range but found few others are better than Gallo's .. Monitor Audio Gold ref 60 ($4K), Odyssey Lorelei($2700), I ended up buying Usher 6781 and really Happy.

Milind

Yes, Banksfriend and I did auditioned the Nucleus 3 from Gallo, and have to agree that the pair in question did sound closed in. We both, after reading the TAS article, tried to recollect, and discussed, what we heard that day. The only solution is a trip back to that dealer, for another audition.

Here's something to ponder regarding dealer auditions, from Srajan Ebaen's follow-up (June) to his original review (April) at six.moons.com (Read these if you haven't already):

"As I've said before, pricing a $10,000/pr beater at $2,595/pr is asking for trouble. Say you were a dealer. Would YOU want such an upstart to undermine sales of your pricier spreads? Hell no. Say you did put it on the floor. Wouldn't you do everything in your power to MAKE it sound like a $2,595 speaker ..."

The dealer where I bought mine said he had sold zero other speakers more expensive than the Ref 3s since he started demonstrating them. On the other hand, he had sold 11 pairs of Ref 3s in something like six weeks.

Just something to think about. Dave