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Gallo Ref 3's for musician?

Friends, I am building a new system for my practice space and would appreciate your thougts. I am a semi-professional musician (get paid but not enough to eat) with tenot sax and clarinet as main horns. I am working a on my improvisational skills by playing along with the greats - Stitt, Ammons, Bill Evans, Brubeck, and Getz, and with vocalists like McCrae and Cassandra Wilson. I am particularly into samba these days as well. My practice space is appx 13'x30' with sheetrock walls, carpet over concrete. The ceiling is a sloping cathedral. Speaker placement is unlimited in the room, and there is very little furniture, all of which can be moved as needed.
My needs are simple, though perhpas not simple to satisfy. I am a student of technique and tone. I want a speaker that is accurate; one that, to the extent possible, faithfully reproduces the true tone, color and pitch of the recorded instruments. And I need a speaker that throws a wide soundstage. When I honk along, I tend not to stay in one place, but try to find a spot that places me in the group. I am also looking for a speaker that has a good vertical stage as well - that sounds strong whether standing or sitting.
After some initital research I came across the Gallo's. The words people use seem to match my needs with regards to accuracy and soundstage and overall musicality. As there is no dealer within reach (according to the Gallo website), I am looking to you folks for your thoughts and suggestions in the $2k range - new or used.
I am also looking at Rogue componants, on the lower end or an integrated like the Tempest Magnum, PL Prologue 2 or the Cayin a88. I like the idea of being able to fine tune the sound with tubes.
I appreciate your assistance and thoughts.
deliberate1
rlwainwright
1,901 posts
 
Mr Pogue, of course, is right. I did not mean to disparage tube gear. His system sounds spectacular, better than mine as a matter of fact. He is driving the 2nd voice coil, using a Gallo Sub Amp, to very good effect.

So, looks like the Refs sound great no matter what you drive 'em with, as long as it's good quality gear...

-RW-
deliberate1 OP
33 posts
 
Friends, I am greatful for your replies. The Gallos will remain top on my dance card.
Some of you mentioned what you use to drive these speakers. I'd appreciate any other suggestions.
Forgive my nubeness, but is "power" from a tube amp the equavlent to "power" from solid state or are there other considerations.I ask because Dopogue runs them with 12wpc SET and others suggest a min of 100 watts (I assume from SS), with more the better. I am tending towards a tube rig for that tunability. Any specific recommedations for this type of power source would be very helpful. I live in rural Maine. Radioshack is my closest "high end" dealer. And they appear, at the moment, to be out of SOTA tube gear.
Thanks again
dopogue
1,767 posts
 
A few notes. I see there's a pair here on Audiogon today being sold by a dealer who's asking $1845. Says the original MSRP was $3,000, but when they were introduced they cost $2595 (got mine for $2500 new). All this is just to help you in bargaining :-)

As to tube vs. SS watts, there's something in what you say about the greater "oomph" from a tube watt, but I know for a fact that some of the pre-production tweaking was done using a 10 watt SS amp. I think the Gallos must have a very benign impedance curve, because their 88 dB sensitivity suggests that low powered amps shouldn't work. Yet they do, at least some of them, like mine. Feel free to contact me off-line if you think I might be able to help further. Dave
bongofury
1,160 posts
 
I have been in the live touring space for 25 years and work with arena level sound gear. I own the Gallos above (my wife's home theater) and ATC pro gear (really accurate studio monitors). With that said, the best value system I have heard (and recently bought) is the new Blue Sky Audio (www.abluesky.com) editing stations. I much prefer them in a small room situation. I just bought it for my son who is a musician as well. They are available via Guitar Center and the base level unit, EXO, cost $250 for an integrated and enclosed amp/speaker that blows me away for their clarity and nearfield soundstage. My client Electronic Arts uses them for their computer games. You can record directly into a Apple and use these for editing and playback.
likecoiledsteel
33 posts
 
I have been trying to find the perfect amp for the Gallo 3.1's recently. I tried Parasound, Arcam monoblocks, Carver Silver 9T monoblocks at 575 watts. I have a 250 watt Krell that sounsd great, but a little on the dry side with the Gallos. My former B&W's loved the Krell. I now have a customer Butler 2250 S.S./Tube hybrid mated with a Cary Cinema 6 and it is an ecellent combo, the best I heard yet with the Gallos. I have friends who use tubes with the Gallos, with the Gallo SA amp runing the low end.

Check out the 6moons review of the Butler 2250, they use the Gallos on part of the test and mates great.

Tweaks I found necessary with the Gallos:

1- At least 200 hours of break in. They sound constrained before that point.

2- Need more height. I use the Sound Anchor stands.
3- The tweeter has a very wide soundstage, but the mids are more conventional. I found tow-in worked wonders.
Good Luck.
Steel
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