smooth rich sound, detailed airy highs

discontinued. new gallo products cannot compare

I have a 5.1 setup with all Gallo DUE' and replaced the Front L/R with Solos. In comparison, the DUE' sounds a bit harsh and bright. Although both speakers have the CDT tweeter, the Solo version is worlds better: much smoother, extended, and way more detailed. The Solo's have great full mid and low bass, down to a good 35 hz, and in conjunction with my Velodyne HGS12, it simply rocks The Dynaudio driver is to credit for the mids... full, rich and detailed, , as opposed to the DUE' which seems to throw out voices some users have said they need alot of free air around them to sound their best, but I placed them a few inches to the wall and they sound great When I got them, the CDT tweeters were severely tarnished, they looked like they were salvaged from the ocean! But with a Q-tip and some TarnX tarnish remover they look as good as new!

Similar Products Used:

gallo due, paradigm studio, old school polks

delicate, detailed highs; wonderful midrange; better bass than most monitors

lack of deep bass

i have lived with these speakers for some 6 months, and am very pleased. they have almost everything that i would look for in a monitor: great treble, rich but accurate mids, and fairly strong bass. the treble is much more natural and detailed, and the electronic glare is much reduced compared to the B&W 805s that i had previously. i have yet to reproduce the Solo's much vaunted soundstaging within my own system, but my setup is far from ideal. maybe when i move them to a larger room...
besides, they look very cool. all in all, i am very pleased--i'm sticking with these for a while!

system: Gallo Solo's, Silver Audio Symphony 32, BAT VK200, Silver Audio Bullet 6.0, SF Line 1 with Kevin Deal Tungsram's on BDRCs, Silver Audio Bullet 6.0, EVS Millenium 24/192 DAC, Silver Audio Bullet 6.0, Monarchy DIP MKII, Kimber AGDL, Panasonic A310 on BDRCs, Sunfire True Sub MkII, Kimber Heros

Similar Products Used:

B&W 805's

seeing that everyone up there gave this speaker a good review i have to say Where the hell where you guys!!!!!!!!! these speakers are great but does not have that good of a bass response the speakers have a tendency to have a Woofer Slapping effect. the speakers also do not have better sound imaging than JBL and Eosone Speakers. They need to do at least 2 things 1:Put a Casing around the Midrange for better Voice Reproduction 2:use better speaker material

These speakers are really holographics!The ability that these speakers have to represent the event musical, in
studio or live is fantastic !!
They simply disappear in front of us .You can close your eyes and  be
transported easily for the musical event ,  being this very evident mainly
in the vocal ones.
When I listened Diana Krall -only trust your heart, she appeared as a
palpable, tangible image, exactly    in front of me.  I immediately caught
other cds(Ana Caram-Sunflower Time, Gal Costa-Acústico, Patrícia Barber-Café
Blue,Terrasson&Cassandra Wilson-Rendezvous,  Andy Bey-Ballads,Blues & bey
,among others) and I was surprised :those same cds that I had already
listened several times,  appeared as new ,rich in details that I had never listened .
Dave Brubeck-time out take five,this sensation is incredible,being each  instrument very placed in the recording room (There is a picture of  this room accompanying the cd ,and  the correlation is perfect).
They  preserve the texture of each instrument marvelously well. The sax
sounds like a sax  (Paul Desmond-Late Lament, John Coltrane-Ballads), the
guitars sounds like guitars(Joe Pass-Virtuoso) and the same happens with all
other instruments.
But if you as well as me love piano  you can be ruffled listening  these
speakers,simply magnificent !!( Marian Mcpartland-Live at yoshi's Nitespot,
for example,was beautiful !).
The treble is smooth,sweet, no grain. The decline is very soft.
The Midrange is liquid, lush,  not strident . therefore, there aren't
fatigue when listening to them.The bass is deep,agile and very defined (I
used Massive attack-Protection,Charlie Haden&Pat Metheny-Beyond the Missouri
Sky for this test).
There are not a absolute truth, but exists almost unanimous opinions like:
Ferraris are really fast, NBA is the best  basketball league on world and
the Gallos are the best speakers under $10.000.
Listen them and you won't be disappointed !
Arismar-Brazil.

I purchased these remarkably unique speakers several weeks ago, having auditioned them numerous times over a six month period. Utilizing various amp/pre-amp combinations in order to fully test their capabilities I found Gallo's high performance speakers open and revealing notwithstanding the Solo's limited bass extension (more on that later). One of the more surprising aspects of this purchase was Gallo's commitment to upgrade their products even after shipment to the audio dealership! These speakers sounded wonderful before, but now they were being delivered to my home where different componants and surroundings awaited. Would they sound as good as they had in the auditions? What would the upgrades do? Would my mid-fi receiver need to be pensioned off sooner than planned as a result of the Solo's requiring better input? My concerns were ill-founded since Gallo's visually stunning speakers are "visually sounding" as well. Yes, they expose weaknesses in componants, and source recordings as well, but while openning up new vistas they don't slam the door on everything else. Rather, they invite you to listen to new and different source materials and componants while providing a more visceral experience with that which is available. Are the Gallo Nucleus Solo's without flaw? Probably not. But as far as I'm concerned they are the best speakers this side of Bill Gate's bank account, and I'll leave the search for a "Holy Grail" to Indiana Jones. About the low end (bass, not performance). The Solo's were designed as very musical full range speakers with a limited ability to reach into the low bass region. This is a difficult area to reproduce adequitly without benefit of a subwoofer (I use an old warhorse Velodyne ULD-18), but if an audiophile must go into the hinterlands using a one speaker system I would recommend the Gallo Nucleus Reference Speakers. They're priceier, but if you need the extra woof this pair should fill the bill while providing the kind of engaging experience I've described. For audiophiles seeking top drawer performance, who would prefer spending the $1500 difference (Solo vs Reference) on a good amp or some higher resolution CDs, I give these phenomenal speakers 5 stars!

I was surprised as I checked this page of reveiws, as there at the top is a photo of my very own pair of Solo's. Gary at Gallo must have like the photo when i sent it to him. I have been living with these guys for about 4 months now, and day by day grow more fond of them. Yep, they do all the things everyone says they do and, I love the looks, but the single reason they work for me though is that I'm pretty much though with the consant feeling that "if I could only improve this or that" I would be happier. Done. No more. I can now just listen.. with my ears fully open if you know what i mean. I'm not waiting to hear the system make a "mistake".

I don't own a pair of Gallos (way,way too many good speakers out there), but I have to admit that they are one of the finest I've ever heard. Transparancy, imaging and soundstaging are second to absolutely none. Above all, it excels in musicality. There is no box colouration. Even though I consider myself quite a critical listener, I find it hard to criticise any aspect of its performance. Possible drawbacks might be appearance and lack of DEEP bass. You've heard this too many times before, but at the price, and considerably above it, they are hard to beat. I wonder why the major audio magazines haven't reviewed it yet. Personally, I don't give too much stock to reviews, but it seems too many people won't give equipment the time of day unless some expert tells them to. That's too bad, because I think the Gallos deserve an audition by anyone who cares about music.

I bought a pair of Solo's three months ago, -probably the last pair available in Norway. I consider myself very lucky. Their sound is very convincing and realistic. Even in the siderooms from where the Gallos reign, the sound is as if the artist actually was present! When I'm in the kitchen, I can swear someone is playing a sax, or a piano, in the living room. The holographic scene seems to be very exact and allows the listener to be present in the studion or concert to an extent I have never experienced before, not even on large electrostats. The tweeter is, no doubt, very very smoth and extended. Midrange as well, neutral and quick. I agree that the overall reproduction tend to be analytic. Nothing is added, nothing witheld. The bass is deep enough to reproduce big orchestras to its full size. Amazing.Best of all; my wife loves both the sound and its looks. I'm through with my search for the perfect speakers. I've got them.

I have owned these eccentric speakers for 5 months. Previously, I have owned and used B&W matrix 801 series3 speakers for 4 years. Some might wonder, because 801's are more expensive, with wider-frequency range than Solos. Well, I downgraded my audio components in some aspects. So what? I don't care. I love Solo's more than any speakers I have ever listened to.
801's are accurate, in some sense, of course. And they have such a dynamism if bi-amped with some behemoths. But,they are just too large for ordinary living room(I think they need a wharehouse-sized room to sound properly without room treatment, and at least 30'x40'room with some recording-studio level treatment, neither were out of my ability), and sometimes, music sounded somewhat dry and made me feel fatigue after a few hours listening. I thought of the last 2 problems for a long time, listening to various speakers, because I found the same problems in the most famous speakers on the planet.("Vivid, dynamic sound & music" vs."Easy to get fatigue, and reverse trade-offs). My conclusion is, 801's 3-units are not working harmoniously(charming midrange and tweeter's shot-gun co-wedding with heavy-weight woofer), and the electronic cross-over network makes things far worse. Subtle discrepency of each unit's phase and tonal difference, and time lag of woofer made sound a little bit "unnatural". It's something like a pair of glasses using a high resolution lens with some slight crack and slightly tinted with different colors. You'll certainly feel headache and fatigue reading a book wearing these glasses in 5 minutes. On the contrary, A pair of dark sun-glasses with some slight crack on it and slightest color difference won't give you such an headache while Sun-tan by the pool. That's why some expensive speakers sound more unbarably sometimes, than mass-product speakers. Difference and lag between speaker units and electronic cross-over network is the problem. But it's not a 801's unique problem, but a destiny of every muti-way dynamic speaker units. But who on earth can make a full-range reproducing dynamic speakers without electronic cross-over network?
As I said, I had a chance to listen to almost every major speakers regardless of price-range. The most impressive creature was, JM Lab's top-of the line(not Wilson's, of course) which was way out-of-my-range in both size and $$$. And the second was, odd enough, a Maestro's home made speaker with a single full-range unit mounted on a big, solid mahogany box. They made a staggering natural sound 2 die 4 which was not for sale. The third? MBL's omni directional speakers with simply amazing and vivid sound-stage.
I was not impressed at all with Dunlavy's, PSB's, and the most of electrostatic speakers and hybrids. They were good speakers, but not worth replacing my 801's.
Now I am happy with Gallo's Nucleus Solo's, hooked up to Sunfire's amp and Audible Illusion's pre. Pretty humble, aren't they? But they do unbelievable job altogether. I can say, this is a magic of "downgrade". Way out from struggle, stress, budget, lust for future upgrade, and wife's argue. Amazing tonal accuracy, chilling sound-stage, and comes with quite a dynamism, if necessary. And more important, no impose of fatigue. What else does a man need for serious music listening? From this point on, it's not a matter of music listening, but an audio listening, looking left and right by direction of vanity, reviews on the magazines, buy and sell similar gears spending 4 or 5 times the money, without pretty noticeable results.
Gosh, I love music. And I love these speakers....
However, I have to say that there's no free lunch in this world of speakers, ruled by precize mechanical law of physics. In this case, "Burden of woofer" is one critical weak point. Dynaudio's 6.5" woofer reproduces from about 32HZ to around 2.5KHZ. This means the woffer itself works as an almost single full-range unit. Even for the most extra-ordinary speaker units, this is such a burden. If an amp fails to provide them with sufficient Ampare, they will certainly sound lack of overall vividness, lack of dynamism in mid-lows, loosing lots of details in bass. Most of ordinary people will still be impressed or even shocked by the sound, though.
To be more honest, though I feel no defiency listening to most of classical music and accoustic jazz whatever the kind, but I feel deprived of some bit when I listen to the some rocks because I believe, the bits and some bass note of rock's are to be felt by body, rather than be heard by ears. It's the core of the Rock. To do so, not the quality, but the quantity of bass that speaks.
Evidently, Solo's cannot provide that kind of bit.
So I tried Genesis 900's subwoofer that I have for H.T.configuration. Cross-over at around 70HZ(overlapping by 1 full octave with Solo's). not perfect, but I could feel the rythm created by the bits.
After all, I think of all the flood of so-called high-end speakers, Nucleus series speakers are the nearest to the perfectness of reproducing the natural sound, under $10K. But If you decide to cross the river beyond and get into the queer land of full range electrostatic speakers, against all odds, that's quite another story..

I have auditioned numerous speakers over the past two years. I finally settled on the Gallo Nucleus Solo speaker series when the company had already stopped production. Fortunately, I found a pair in a small shop in Wisconsin Rapids, WI. By the way, if you're in the market for good gear at very good prices, check out Salon One Audio (715-421-5910) and speak with Bruce. He's cool and gave me a great deal on the Solos. I received them this past weekend. After assembly and positioning them they sounded great right out of the box. I am told that one often has to wait for speakers to break-in and "open up." Well, these were in full bloom right away. If I can expect them to get better, I'll begin to expect that Gallo's are part of the Lord's stereo in heaven. There is no box sound. No coloration. It's like the speakers aren't there. It's just blissful,beautiful music. The TV sounds great, movies, etc. It's like your in the room with the performer. Every disk in my collection sounds better. I had decent front channel speakers before, (Polk Audio SDA compacts) which are going to become my rear channel speakers in my H.T. set up. But these Solos just blow me away. If you can find a pair, buy 'em. You won't be disappointed. Even my wife likes the way they look and sound. Their practically indestructible, which is a concern around kids. Enjoy the tunes :-}
Can I give more than 5 speakers? If not then 5 will have to do. Two thumbs up.