Size, imaging

Range

I have 2sats + MPS-150 powered sub. I consider this to be a great introduction to the world of audio as it comes with many lessons. Listening to speakers without “cabinets” is a refreshing experience to say the least. This setup images beautifully and sounds great in my room 10’Ceilings, 18’ W , 35’ L. I am using a YAMAHA HTR5230 and AMC CD8b.

I will try to keep this as simple as possible. I love the sub and did A/B’s against friends Velodyne 12’ and PSB ALPHA subzero 10’ and feel that this is a much more musical sub. Gary Gallo offered me great customer service and answered all my emails faithfully while working through a problem with one of the sats which was replaced immediately.

The bottom line is that these are great for: Video Sources, Electronica, and Minimal Classical.

Bad for: anything complicated especially ROCK and INDUSTRIAL as the sats get cluttered and sounds get “lost”.

Some examples: AIR Moon Safari, DEAD CAN DANCE The Serpents Egg, various EM:T cd’s, ROY MONTGOMERY (guitarist from NZ) , VIVALDI Cello Concertos, all sound incredible.

FILTER Title of Record, A PERFECT CIRCLE Mer De Norms, ROB ZOMBIE American Made Music to Strip By , BLACK SABBATH The Best of Black Sabbath (remastered), EHG Southern Discomfort, LUSTMORD Heresy, are lacking as the hole in the MIDS is compounded by any type of full range that occurs in the recording. The micros are simply unable to handle it.

IF you listen to uncomplicated sources or want to use them for HT I would buy them. I do have reservations about them as centers though as I tested them at that application and as rears. They work quite well as rears, but as centers, they are lacking IMHOP. I look forward to using the sats as rears for HT. I have a pair of 2-ways on order that I will be using in conjunction with the MPS-150 for music and video sources. But the micros, theyre going on the walls for video………
I wish I could review the sat seperatly but there is not a category for it set up on this board. Consider the rating for the sats. only.

Incredible looks, unbelievable sound quality...Movies like The Matrix are absolutely unbelievable with the volume cranked up...you won't believe the detail. Did I mention how cool they look?

The only gripe I have is that they don't offer a piano black finish that would have matched my Pioneer Elite TV.

I couldn't be happier. I bought the 5 satellites (Stainless because they don't come in the piano black) and the powered Sub. I basically listened to all of the "Lifestyle" systems on the market, and as good as these sound its really not fair to put these in the same category as the Bose and the others. I just bought a Pioneer Elite TV and when I turn on the HDTV demo loop, my friends are as amazed with the sound as they are with the picture. I was a little apprehensive about running one of the satellites as my center channel, but I tried it and I'm thoroughly impressed. None of my visitors have been able to figure out that all of the dialogue is coming out of the silver ball on top of the TV, and not out of the TV's internal speaker.

Gary Pelled is running a first class operation...You're wasting your money if you buy one of the other systems without making the effort to listen to the Gallo's first.

Similar Products Used:

Bose, Jamo, Definitive Tech, Atlantic Tech, Polk, Boston Acoustics...I listened to everything before I made my decision

Spouse approval of size and appearance. Excellent sonic qualities; imaging, natural rendition of male and female voice, almost seamless integration with Gallo powered sub-woofer. Excellent value for the sound the system delivers. A telephone call to Gary at Gallo provided instant assistance and a friendly discussion on our hobby. It is a pleasure to find a manufacturer who will provide sincere personal assistance to a customer. Bravo !

None experienced to date.

A great value both sonically and visually. Thank you Gallo.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm 7's (10 years old) for seperate stereo set up. I have heard Bose systems in homes and dealers. The Gallo's simply put out the better sound. Quality as opposed to mediocrity and mass marketing hype.

I finally got a Micro system after waiting 7 months or so. This is my first high-end system, so my point of comparison may be low. But I think these speakers are absolutely wonderful. They "disappear." They create a "stage"-like effect, where you can close your eyes and see the musician. They don't have massive bass, but they have bass. They never sound too bright but you can hear every brush on every cymbal. Midrange sounds like piano, trumpet, guitar sound great. And so do voices. They're just GREAT. And the fact that they're teeny, cool-looking, and cost $700 is pretty nice too! (I am driving them with 75 watts of Classe 30/70).

When I first auditioned the micros they were in a fairly large demo room and although the electronics being used for demonstration weren't really what I would've picked I tried to keep an open mind. Initially, I thought they sounded pretty good. I compared them to a pair of B&W CDM-1SE's and found the micros to lack the coherence and rock-solid imaging of the B&W's. But for $400 less I guess that was to be expected. And again this was a demo room. Ultimately, I liked the micros and figured I'd get better sound in my own room and in my own system. So I bought a set. I only had one problem with their construction. The grills on the satellites came off as I unpacked them! I was thinking I could just hot-glue them back on if they still sound good. That was the first disappointment. According to Gallo's literature they recommend using the included 18 guage solid OFC cables. Their claim that you need to spend more than $100/foot to get better sound from the micros than with their own wire is pure marketing B.S. I started with their cables just to compare and get the speakers properly positioned. Solid core wires are a real pain in the ass! After a week I switched back to my Kimber 8TC cables and heard a much better improvement in the inner detail and bass. So the ultimate question is: Are they really all that great? My answer would be yes and no. I think they sound very good especially with accoustic, female vocals, and some rock. They have surprised me many times with the amount of detail they do present. Especially on bass guitar! Maybe it's the whole 3-piece set up that makes me uneasy. You hook up cables from amp to sub and then sub to satellite. On the down side, while they do throw up a nice soundstage, on some recordings I find it all too easy to hear sound coming directly from the satellites instead of being a part of the sonic image. This really irks me. I'm still considering trading them in for the CDM-1SE's as I've always liked B&W speakers. If you're not too fanatical about your speakers or have a sensitive significant other, then I would recommend them. They absolutely sound better than Bose and all come with nice binding posts for easy hook-up. And it's hard to beat a lifetime warranty too! But if you're an audionut who craves sonic nirvana then these might seem a bit too gimicky. Good sound, very detailed and dynamic. But ultimately I think their place is for replacing bose (i.e. for possible bose customers who don't know any better but willing to spend the $700) I haven't tried them in a home theater setting but I imagine they would work well in that regard. Note though that the little satellites are only rated for about 40 watts rms with out the sub--which means a low-powered home theater receiver so as not to burn out the center channel!

I purchased a set of five micros without the passive sub (to go with my hsu research sub). Good soundstage...but otherwise unimpressive (though I so much wanted them to impress). There is no technical info...no frequency response chart or +/-db thing. In the store, they were using a jolida tube amp to drive two micros with the passive sub. The micros are selling quite well (they have a 45 day backlog) but the store rep also said that many of the buyers purchased without even listening to the speakers.
Anyways, having had the micros for about two weeks, I took them back. The micros only go down to about 125hz. My Hsu research sub probably only goes up to about 80hz before things get muddy. So the whole system sounded thin. In the
store, I honestly didn't think the passive sub was doing a whole lot. But if you like the micros, you may have to go with their sub or something that can fill the gap in the frequency range. But the sound from each micro remains thin even with their passive sub IMHO.

Positives: Soundstage is big.

I think the spherical enclosures do work well to eliminate the "boxy" sound of some speakers. Perhaps larger speakers (like the solo) benefit even more from the spherical enclosures. But I think what makes the larger gallo speakers better relates mostly to the patented tweeter that is not part of the micros (hence the top mounted cylinder on the solo). Size too.

Negatives: it sounded like each micro was working pretty hard to pump out the
sound. So, I honestly felt strained to listen to the speakers for extended amounts of time. The lack of mid-bass was an issue (which may or may not be solved by the passive sub...seems like you'd want one passive sub for each micro though).

The sound was also muffled at times. The sound from each speaker seemed to have some haze to it. Didn't sound clean to me. Makes me wonder about the quality of the woofer they are using.

If you have the space, you can probably assemble a "fuller" sounding system with
paradigm or other speakers for about the same price ($1150). If you want to go really cheap...check out the optimus prox77. Amazing sound for an even more amazing price.

But as for the micros...a three overall.

I've had my Micro 5.1's for a couple weeks now. They're amazing ! Everything you've heard about the soundstage is absolutely correct. I'm not an audiophile; never even knew what a "soundstage" was until a year ago, but I'm a fan of good music and have a pretty good ear. To be honest, I didn't really listen to many other speakers before buying the Gallos. I attended one of the Bose demos in a Bose outlet in Maine. Then I started looking around to see if anyone else made similar sub/sat systems. The nice thing about the Bose AM speakers is they're REALLY small, and it looked like I would have to give that up to get better sound. Even the little Energy Take 5's are bigger than I would have liked. Then I came across a site that bragged about the Gallos Micros, and I started reading some impressive reviews of older Gallo speakers and I decided to wait (and wait and wait :) for the Micros to be available.
It was worth the wait.

To be honest, when I first hit play on my CD player after hooking them up, I wasn't immediately impressed. There seemed to be something missing. But after switching between the Micros and my old two-way Infinity RS-3000's over and over, I came to realize that there was nothing "missing" other than something artificial that the Infinity's must have been adding. Furthermore, the Infinitys seemed to put up a "wall" of sound right at the front of the speakers, while the Micros presented a sound with much more depth - behind me, under my feet, behind the speakers themselves ... To put it another way, when I listened to David Sanborn's "Bang Bang", the Micros made it sound like I was actually in a jazz club, while the Infinitys made it sound like there was a jazz club inside the speaker cabinets and some sound was escaping.

Okay, the comparison with the Infinitys was done on my old Technics 50W stereo receiver. My new Yamaha RX-V995 arrived about a week ago. FWIW, the receiver didn't make nearly as much difference as the speakers. Everything was a little crisper, a little cleaner, but not as vastly different as with the speakers. But I finally got to hear 5 satellites in surround mode. I played a DVD (DD, not DTS) and VHS tape (Prologic). I might need to bump up the center channel volume, because voices seemed a little quiet relative to the soundtrack. But otherwise, it sounded great. I haven't heard a soundtrack with lots of low, rumbling explosions - I'm not sure how it would sound compared to speakers that might color the sound and emphasize the lows. But in a musical soundtrack, this setup excels. I wathed part of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - the music was crisp no matter how loud, and all kinds of amazing sounds were present even during action scenes.

I've heard that the Yamaha is a "bright" receiver that can sound harsh with "bright" speakers. It sounds very natural with the Micros, so I'm guessing they wouldn't be considered a "bright" speaker.

I primarily chose the Yamaha and Gallo combination to sound good on music, with good HT being a secondary consideration. And I've listened to ten times as much music as movie soundtrack in the past two weeks already. The Micros are phenomenal on anything acoustic or any live recording. David Sanborn's "Pearls" sounds muddy on my car speakers and the Infinitys - almost like it was recorded too loud and distorted, yet the Micros play it just fine. They bring out sounds on U2s Joshua Tree CD that I've never even heard before. The soundstage is particularly impressive on classical and jazz and utterly amazing on a couple of CDs of bagpipe music that I have.

If you don't mind having a set of big speakers lying around, then I don't know how well the Micros compare to big box speakers. Given that my Infinitys weren't all that terribly cheap, I'm willing to bet that the Micros would still give most speakers in their price range a run for the money. But if you're looking for a sub/sat system, you owe it to yourself to try these things out. They're inexpensive, tiny, and sound amazing. If you don't have a local dealer (there aren't many), call up Steve Zipser at Sunshine Stereo (www.sunshinestereo.com). I found Steve to be knowledgeable, helpful, and intent on providing his customers with good service (he helped me out with one special request).

AWESOME!!! Just got it yesterday, I 've never heard anything this clear before. I 've been shopping around for a speakers for a long time. Compared to Paradigm, PSB, NHT, B&W, Mission etc, nothing come close to its clarity. You just got to listen to it. It is really incredible. I would have posted it 6 stars if there is one.

Who could possibly explain why it took a year's worth of advertising, a name change, and a slight design change for these speakers to finally appear on the market?
I listened to these, and yes, definitely the best thing about them is that they just plain disappear. Anyone would be hard-pressed to blindly point out the location of the two sattelites. But after that, well there's not much.

A Bose-killer they are, as the response of these was much flatter than the mid-bass heavy, grating treble Bose acoustimass systems. But still, there's something to be said for a good set of woofers. A-B'd with NHT SuperOnes, and especially with Aura's LineSource bookshelf system, these lacked precision and detail. Be suspicious if your dealer puts on an acoustic guitar track to give you a demo. They'll probably sound good with that, but put something more complicated in, and they seem to get lost.

If you're looking for a slick system that takes up virtually no space, this is it. If your less concerned about the gee-whiz factor (and for all their high-tech design, the construction is a bit "cheap"), you could spend half the money and get better response. Then put the other half towards a real subwoofer.


But as always, listen for yourself!

Got a hold of the Micros about two weeks ago. I am using a 17 watt tube amp. You won't believe the sound until you hear it for yourself. They are the BEST under one thousand dollar speakers I have ever heard, and I've auditioned a lot of speakers this last year. The Vandersteen 1c, Coincident, etc. This stomps em. I've had several people over to listen to them, and they can't believe how good they sound. I've auditioned speakers in the 2-3 thousand dollar level that can't compare with these. Some people think Bose when they see how small these things are. Bose wishes... O.K. so I liked the Gallo Nucleus a little better. You have to hear these. Is there six stars?