Conrad Johnson with Gallo Reference 3.1s

One thing sure, they love tube amps. And tube watts sound much louder than SS watts. I drove my Gallo Reference 3s for 8 years, very successfully, with 12 wpc 845 SET monoblocks (yes, very large trannies) augmented by the Gallo subwoofer amp on the woofers' second voice coils. I'm now using the same amps on Gallo Stradas augmented by a pair of self-powered Gallo TR3 subs. Never heard either CJ amp you cite. Good luck. And you sure won't need more power.

I think you should do fine with a Conrad Johnson tube amp unless you want to play it at deafening levels. I usually find that I play my music at moderate levels to perceive the most detail. I use a Conrad Johnson Evolution 2000 amp with Martin Logan Vantage speakers with excellent results. You may want to check out www.conradjohnsonowners.com to see if anybody else has specific experience with driving Gallos with CJ amps. Let us know how things turn out!

I'm not familiar with the Gallos but I owned the c-j CA200. I would not describe it as warm. It did have a very nice sound though. I would describe it as "sweet" (that's not an official audiophile term). I think that resulted from very good high frequency reproduction.

The 2500A is more of a warm amp. Some people claim the 2250A sounds even better but I have no proof that that's true. In any case, these c-js are well regarded amps and if you're doing the buy and try method of assembling a system (many of us are) the c-js are as good a place to start as any.

Dopogue's suggestion to consider tube amps is something to think about too.

The CA200 is neutral and detailed without being warm. The 2500 A is more open and smoother than the 2250A but not as detailed as the CA 200. It is sonically similar to the 2250A but opens up the sound of the 2250 A. The 2250 A is a good amp but does not have the power or overhead as the other two amps. The CA 200 eliminates the need for a preamp or extra interconnects. Any of the amps would drive the Gallos. If you consider the speakers warm then go with the CA200. If you consider the speakers bright go with the 2500 A. I have owned all three plus several CJ tube amps. No matter what you choose, consider the speaker wires.

Thanks all for your feedback and opinions. I've purchased the CA200 and should have it set up late next week. Considering I've been running the Gallos off of a basic Yamaha receiver the past year, this should be quite an improvement. This year's budget is just about tapped out now but I'm considering either the Mapleshade Golden Helix speaker cable or a set of AntiCable Performance speaker cables. I'll let you know how everything turns out.
Cheers,