Any experience with Gallo Reference 3.1 speakers?

Timothy Smith

I am considering buying some used Gallo 3.1 Reference speakers.
I have not listened to them yet, but I have heard good things about them.
Does anyone own some now, or listened to them in the past.
Opinions?

tonyb

Haven't heard them myself, but like you said, lots of people who have love 'em. Even a lot of professional reviewers have a pair hanging around. They do take some juice to get them going though.

Emlyn

I auditioned the previous 3.0 version some years ago. I was impressed by the integrated quality of the midrange and tweeter, but not impressed by the bass output. If you haven't seen a pair, they are quite small which surprised me when I first saw them. The pair I saw may have benefitted if the dealer had the secondary amplifier connected for the woofer driver, but they didn't have one available. They were crystal clear and had a broad soundstage for their size though. I would say the purchase of the amplifier to drive the voice coil in the woofer is mandatory to get the best out of them.

polkfarmboy

Dont buy em as they kinda suck

tonyb

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Dont buy em as they kinda suck

I think that statement requires a tad more explanation...don't you ?

polkfarmboy

Well Tony I was rather hoping for an unquestioned understanding due to my vast knowledge but I will expand. I have a pair ( 5 pairs of gallo in total )and I think that they need too much power for them to balance themselfs out, its not the type of speaker you want in a tight space either as its tricky yo place them. I find myself just listening to the reference surrounds with the quad 4 inch woofers but even that takes a power amp hooked up to the avr to get em going good. I have tried the 3.1's with my krell 1200 HT pre and my Anthem D2v and its only the Anthem with ARC working overtime that they sound decent at lower volume levels.

tonyb

Now that's better PFB, was that so hard ?

By your description however, seems like you weren't feeding them enough juice though. They are known to be extremely power hungry as already stated. You can't say a speaker, any speaker, sucks when you don't properly feed them. That's audio 101 my friend.

Emlyn

If I could find a pair of the 3.1s locally for a really good price I wouldn't mind getting them to try out in my system. Strictly for two channel use is what I'm thinking. There was some special quality about everything but the low end on the early version I heard. I have a feeling that I'd probably move them on soon after doing that though.

Gaara

I loved mine, owned them for years. Only reason I sold em was to move up to the 3.5s (not worth it IMO).

I found that they work well with digital amps (use IcePower in my system) and I believe that Anthony uses some Spectron amps on his. Don't think they need crazy power IMO (I used them w/ 8w for a bit).

Do agree on the small room situation, they sound better with some decent space around them. As for the bass, sound decent for music but they do get better when bi-amping the 2nd voice coil. Better yet if you have a decent sub just do that. I had a lot of trouble getting the phase perfect between the two speakers and the sub, not worth the hassle IMO.

iskandam

I used to have the Ref II (the 2 6.5" Dynaudio woofers housed in a big ball with the tweeter on top). Fantastic soundstage and detail. Regretted selling them as they're very hard to find on the used market. I'm tempted to try the 3.1 based on my experience with the II.