New Gallo 3.5's

Dopogue, I have been reading your reviews of the Mapleshade bases with great interest. I am trying to decide whether to get the Mapleshade bases or get the 3.5's when they come out. After 18 months I love my 3.1's and not anxious to replace them but I have toying with the idea of tweaking them with the Mapleshade bases.

If they weren't so expensive and so, er, cosmetically-challenged, I'd praise the Mapleshade bases even more highly. They really give the speakers a rock-solid foundation, transforming the bass and lower midrange areas in particular. This is with the 4-inch maple platforms BTW; I don't know how much would be lost with the 2-inch versions. Dave

I know is a little bit off the subject but maybe you guys can help me out. I also own the 3.1s and I have been very happy for the last several months with its sound, but I recently bought the reference center speaker and in the pink noise test it sounds different than the mains. I have the center channel speaker mounted on the wall at about 2 feet from the carpeted floor with open spaces all around. The mains are powered by a bel canto evo4-v2 and the center by my arcam receiver. I feel that my surround speaker which are from a different manufacturer have a more seamless sound with the fronts than the gallo center speaker, by the way all drivers in the center speaker are working propperly.

Horizontally arranged drivers have terrible off axis phase response. I also have the Gallo ref 3.0s and AV ref. The AV ref sounds fine on axis, but one step to the right or left and vocals drop out.

Shipping in May, according to their website. I used to own 3.1 and sold them eventually for few couple of deficiencies that are supposedly addressed in the new design. Will be curious how they turn out. They still did few things like no other speaker, like when you hear a sound and you don't know where the sound is coming from even though you might be almost right in front of the driver.Anyway, would love to hear what people think about them and their first impressions.