I've heard them both at dealers and bought the Gallos.
Here's my take:
At the dealers I had the pleasure and/or misfortune to listen to these speakers, there was no doubt: the Totem Forests had a rich, non-fatigueing sound with great imaging. On the other hand, at the first shop that I auditioned the Gallos at, the salesman just wasn't intersted in selling them. In fact, the salesman tried to sell me $6,000 speakers instead. (This was one of the most prominent and famous shops in the US, which of course shall remain unnamed by me.)The Gallos had a very anemic sound, and I could not believe that they were not defective. I listen almost entirely to classical music, and the sound was pretty bad, with a booming one-note bass and a hole in the upper midrange to lower treble (at around the crossover point between the midrange and tweeter drivers). Massed violins had no bite, but the violas and cellos were out in force.
I then traveled to another shop quite a distance from where I live to audition the Gallos. What a difference! They were not the same speakers. In fact, that dealer agreed with me that the Gallos sound every bit as good as the best $4,000 speakers out there, and of course, I listened to some of those speakers in his showroom (and he had some excellent $4,000 speakers on display). Now the Gallos were not broken in yet at the showroom and they seemed to be capable of quite a bit more, so when they were finally delivered to my home, I left them on for some time. At first, they appeared to merely sound like good, decent speakers, albeit with great imaging and soundstaging (that's absolutely obvious to anyone on first listening to them), but after several weeks, there was a sudden and marked improvement to the sound. Strings had acquired the "bite" that was lacking at first and now there's a naturaleness and ease to the presentation that was quite impressive. The dispersion is also quite impressive; they sound great from almost any horizontal angle. You don't have to sit in a sweet spot directly in the center.
The Forests are very good speakers for the money and their designer is a genius; the Gallos, IMHO, however, are really something special: a true masterpiece of design. You will definitely get your money's worth, and then some. You might also try listening to the Spendor S8e at around $3,000, which have gotten great reviews from the English press and Sam Tellig (Stereophile). (Sam seems to have finally gotten over his (French connection?) Triangle speaker love affair, and gone back to the British classics like Spendor and Harbeth, both of which are superb. IMHO the Spendors seem more practical and consumer-oriented than the Harbeth's, which are more monitor-like and require stands.) So I regret not giving them a listen. The Spendors may not have much low bass, though, so if you're into jazz or hard rock, be forewarned. The new Spendor "S" line will be a classic. To conclude this long rant: if you can, try to listen to the Gallos after they've been broken in for a couple of hundred hours at loud and dynamic levels. The Absolute Sound was not wrong in awarding them the "Overall Product of the Year" for 2004.
