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Gallo Reference 3.1 questions...

Howdy,

Just toying with the idea of owning some Gallo Ref 3.1s...

TOYING!

The sub amp is described by some as mandatory, while others describe the speakers as bass rich even without it. Shall I merely infer from this that those who think it mandatory are big ol' bass fiends? Certainly with a 10" driver, I can't imagine it sounding at all anemic.

If a sub amp really is neccessary, does it HAVE to be the Gallo? Couldn't I just use any old amp to run the woofs? Not for nothing, but they need to have their speaker designers take 10 minutes off and help the amp dudes come up with a nicer looking amp. It looks like a DIY kit.

What would be smokin IMO, looks wise, is a Jeff Rowland Concerto integrated running the speakers and a pair of 201s running the subs.

Next Q... I have a tiny joint. Actually I stopped smoking. I have a small apartment. If I placed the Gallos in the hallowed 1.5 foot squares of floorspace I have allocated for speakers, with woofers facing each other, the left one would be inches away from my TV/audio stand, woofer pointing at the rack. The stand is open sided, not solid sided, but I wonder if this could pose a problem.

If I set them up with woofers facing away from each other, the right one would point into my kitchen area, but the left one would face a window about 2-3 ft away, with a big fat AC in it. In the summer the AC runs quite a bit.

OTOH, reviews seem to indicate that the staging on these is very wide (but short, I know), so I wonder just how critical placement is anyway.

Any insights?

Thanks

Rob
rkny
dopogue
1,767 posts
 
The Ref 3 was named Product of the Year in 2004 by The Absolute Sound. That's product of the year, not just speaker of the year. This followed quite a glowing review in TAS.
likecoiledsteel
33 posts
 
The Gallos are too cheap for Stereophile. If you added a zero onto the price of them, Stereophile would be all over it. They were on the cover of The Absolute Sound in 2004 as speaker of the year.
luigy39
16 posts
 
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.
sthomas12321
408 posts
 
Well, Im glad you liked the Gallo's. I really wanted to. I think the Legacy focus 20/20's have just spoiled me over the years.
I am surprised you thought it was a world of a difference from the paradigms. I owned the studio 100v.2's years ago and found them to sound nice. Maybe they wouldnt sound the same to me after years of better equipment. Anyway, hope the gallo's serve you well.
luigy39
16 posts
 
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.
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