best tweeters perhaps at any price

maybe, I stress *maybe somewhat of a limit in height soundstaging.

These speakers blew me away. I went from a martin logan ascent i to the reference 3.1's and although I missed a little from what the logans offered with there size advantage, the clarity, highs, imaging, detail were all much better.The ascent i's were great speakers, and I wont say the 3.1's are a better speaker. However, to my ears there more what Im looking for.Id rather listen to the gallo's detail and the way they produce music, then to the Martin Logans Ive owned.What I love the most about the gallo 3.1's is nomatter where you sit, it sounds good. The Logans had such a small sweet spot it was ridiculous.The gallos also sound good with almost anything thrown at it. The Logans veried greatly depending on cd quality. Some would say this is because the logans are more revealing. I dont find this true, I think the gallos are just more musical.

Customer Service

not sure yet

Similar Products Used:

martin logans,paradigms,b&w's,definitive technologys,

Looks - my wife thinks they are very handosme - with their grills.

Cost - I paid less than $2600 for the Ref 3As AND for the 3 Dues. The sub only cost another $275, so I have a pretty smokin' set of speakers for less than $2,900.

Ease of placement - The dispersion characteristics are such that these speakers are not very fussy about where you put 'em - just don't shove 'em up against the back wall.

The sound - simply magnificent!

Image height - but see my free tweak above to solve this (non)problem.

The Ref 3s do like to see a lot of current. That's okay, my HK Signature 2.1 amp puts out 100 amps and 100 - 150 watts per channel (5 channels). That's more than enough to drive them at very loud levels with no compression.

I have to say that I am one VERY happy guy! I have recently upgraded my entire home theater/audio system with an all-Gallo setup: Reference 3As for front L/R and Dues for the Center and rear L/R. I also have an Earthquake MKIV 10" 250W Class A/B sub to handle the .1 portion of my 5.q system

The cohesiveness and coherenece of the system is oustanding! From the lowest rumbles (25Hz) right on up to unltrasonic (50KHz) frequencies, this system has it all. The Ref 3As are absolutely stunning in their soundstaging, dispersion, and smooth, precise, and FAST presentation. You can sit 3 feet to the left of the left speaker and still get a reasonable stereo image.

Cymbals and horns have an "attack" that is remarkable, that's the "fast" part working for ya. The one knock that I've heard against these speakers is the height of the soundstage. Well, it didn't really bother me, but I believe I have solved the "problem" nonetheless: I took the spike cups from the rear spikes and doubled them up with the front cups, thereby tilting the speaker back another 10 deg. or so. In addition, I have the Due center channel set at about 5.5 ft. off the ground. These 2 tweaks (FREE!!!) did the trick - I now have a very realistic soundstage in height, width, and depth.

The way it stands now, I do not see any reason to upgrade this system for a very long time. I am quite happy with sounds being presented for both home theater and for 2 channel listening.

Customer Service

Never had to use 'em, and these speakers are some of the best-built units I have ever seen - all aluminum, steel, and carbon fiber.

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Paradigm Studio 80s and CC350. Ohm Walsh 2.

Imaging, build quality, looks (I *dig* 'em), ease of placement, bang for the buck.

None that come to mind - they are virtually perfect.

I use the Gallo Reference 3As as the front left/right speakers in my home theater system. They are matched with Gallo Dues (center and L/R surround), an Earthquake SuperNova MKIV 10" 250W sub and driven by a Harman-Kardon Signature 2.0/Signature 2.1 preprocessor/amplifier combo.

The sound quality and coherence of the system is astounding! The all-Gallo speaker system driven by the ultra-high current Signature 2.1 amp (100-150 watts per channel, +- 100 amps of current!!) is a match made in Heaven. The soundstage is deep and wide, and the speakers are very *fast* - vocals, plucked strings, horns, etc. sound MARVELOUS. The sub does a wonderful job of filling in the the bottom half octave while the Refs take your breath away with their mids and upper frequencies.

Vocals, especially female voices, are to die for. The imaging is rock-solid and, because of their ultra-wide dispersion pattern, you can sit to the left of the left speaker and still get a decent and realistic soundstage.

Some folks have complained that the speakers sit too low and, thereby, present a limited soundstage height. I solved this "problem" quite simply: remove the spike cups from the rear spikes and double them up with the front ones. Voila! The speakers are now tilted back an additional 10 degrees or so and the image height is virtually perfect. In addition, because I am running a 5.1 setup, my Gallo Due center channel sits about 5.5 ft. off the ground - the lead singer sounds like he's performing right there in your room and his voice is at the proper height.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, I sold hi-end gear for several of the better audio salons here in Washington, DC. My favorite speakers at the time were the KEF 105s and the top-of-the-line Spendors. Their imaging, soundstaging, and mid-range recreation were superlative - close your eyes and you were THERE. However, the "sweet spot" was quite narrow (less than 1 ft. wide) and the speakers were very expensive. These Gallos beat them in EVERY way - and they do it for LESS money.

I will probably NEVER sell these speakers, they are THAT good. If I ever do upgrade, the Ref 3s will find themselves doing duty in my bedroom system. It'll be awfully nice to make sweet love to my beautiful bride with these bad boys singing in the background [smile]!!

Buy them - NOW!

Customer Service

No experience. They are built VERY solidly - nothing but carbon fiber, steel, and aluminum with a small, cherrywood base. They have the most solid grilles I have ever seen, you can lift the speaker using the grille.

Similar Products Used:

ADS 1230s, KEF 105s, Ohm Walsh 2.

Excellent microdynamics Great bass Incredible sounstage Tweeter as good as ribbon after break in, although they don't have the image height of line-source ribbons. High build quality Very high value

Tweeter height needs to be higher, easy correction with some elevation Image height low if standing up compared with big panel speakers, which I was use to.

I am a former owner of the Maggie 3.6 , for 5 years, and now own the Gallo 3.1. Like many speakers there are strengths and weaknesses, but overall, I enjoy the Gallo’s more due to their ability to portray live reproduction and musical impact. Mines hasn’t even been fully broken in yet. The design of the Gallo’s is rather ingenious. They eliminated or minimize all the flaws associated with most speaker design like parallel walls, baffle, minimal xover, and coloration from large enclosures. There are many great speakers that have those in their design, but then you have to redesign and add cost back in to minimize their effects. Many speakers spend up to 70% (some more) of the cost on enclosures to thicken the walls, use material that minimize resonance, brace enclosure, line and stuff with sound absorption, multiple coatings of paint and lacquer, expensive xover parts (no matter how expensive, if you can design one that doesn’t use one or minimal xover use, the better). I prefer to purchase a speaker from a company that focus their R&D on music reproduction then to focus on giving me a beautiful enclosure, if I want beautiful furniture, I’ll go to Thomasville. And in the case of Magnepan there is no enclosure, which is one reason they sound so palpable. Some of the difference that I hear between the Gallo’s and Maggies are: Bass: The bass from the Gallo’s have much more of a presence and impact, there’s no surprise here, one of the well known weaknesses of Magnepan speakers is their ability to reproduce the bass the hits you in the guts. The Maggies do go low at times, but sometime it is more of a one bass note or a drone, whereas the Gallo’s can sweep you with layers of articulate bass and impactful whacks. Treble: This is a toss up, they both reproduce the highs very well, better then any tweeter that I’ve encountered. They both have that airy realistic shimmer when playing the high frequencies. The Gallo’s have much better dispersion by design, whereas the Maggies are relegated to a narrow listening area. They both have the advantage of minimal interaction with the ceiling and floors compared with a typical round tweeter. Would love to hear the B&W diamond tweeter to see it compares with these 2 design. Midrange: Toss up again, maybe slight advantage to the Maggies. Driver integration and dipole vs monopole: Surprise to me here, to my ears the Gallo’s drivers integrate very well and sound seamless even though material, size, and shape are different. Personally, I hear some textural differences between the Magnepan ribbon driver and main panels (not necessarily differences big enough to call "discontinuities," but audible differences nevertheless). Thus, with Magnepans, I rarely lose the sense of there being two distinct types of planar drivers at work. In contrast, there is no crossover at all (at least not in the usual sense) between the Gallo midrange drivers and tweeter, so that even though these drivers are made of dissimilar materials and use different operating principles, they do an amazingly good job of speaking with one common voice.. One other though I had regarding the the wave launch from the different drivers. Carefully and properly positioned, dipoles can sound pretty amazing, but there is no getting around the fact that managing their output to the rear is a tricky proposition--one that sometimes involves tradeoffs (as in discovering that the room position that optimizes bass extension may or may not yield the best overall imagining and soundstaging). By contrast, the Gallos are very easy to place for good results, and their imaging/soundstaging is relatively foolproof (provided you keep them away from nearby reflective surfaces). With the dipole effect from Maggie, you get that airy and sultry sound that so many people love, but in real life how many instruments launch sound equally to the front and back? The Gallo’s in this sense portray a more realistic sound wave source and size. Reproduction from a bugle, drum, clarinet, etc, is better from a small point source then from a large panel. But the sound of a grand piano is intoxicating from the Maggies. Soundstage: They both have tremendous strengths in this area, throwing a huge soundstage and rendering live performance right in front of you. Of course the Maggies win the image height contest, you’re ok if you’re seated with the Gallo’s, but stand up and you lose it. They are both very holographic but I find the Gallo’s pinpoint imaging better, this could be due to the size of the Maggies. The size of the Maggies seems to be an issue with reproducing some music and sound. I find that when listening to solo musical instrument or people, it is literally bigger then life as mentioned before. Overall sound: One area that the Maggies do not do as well is when playing complex musical passages that involve a lot of instruments, especially rock. The separation from the Gallos’s provide better instrument identity and placement. They are superb with all genres of music. The Maggies do very well with jazz, small percussion band, and solo, also classical sounds nice and large. Gallo’s sound great at low or high volume, Maggies mostly at the higher volume. One area that I miss about Maggies is that you can’t beat their wall of sound during HT duties. The sound puts you in the middle of the action. Other considerations: Maggies are very difficult to place and they do dominate the room. I eventually grew tire of their looks, maybe because more then a few people said “what are those doors doing in the middle of the room?” The Gallo’s material and construction are first rate, they’ll last a lifetime. The enclosure grill looks like a DIY’fer could replace if it gets bang up, so it is very kid friendly. If you are auditioning Gallo's at a dealer, make sure that the feet are on, or elevated from the base. I found that some dealers don't use the feet because they move the speakers around to position other speakers. If they are flat just on their base, they resonate the whole speaker and can sound bad, just make absolutely sure they are decoupled from the floor.

Similar Products Used:

Magnepan 3.6 Apogee Centuraus nOrh 6.9 SM DCM Timewindow 1A

1) Overall good balance 2) Dynamic midrange 3) Excellent tight bass

1) Too short to be a true floorstanding speaker (requires optional stands!) 2) Midrange lacks the details of ribbons or electrostatics 3) Sub 30 Hz bass requires an optional amp

To whom it may concern, I auditioned this speaker against many other speakers (VMPS, Thiel, MLs, Linns, etc.). While they are a decent sounding speaker (as all of the speakers that I auditioned are) they do have some issues that I feel that potential buyers need to be aware of: 1) they are very short for a "floorstanding speaker". The tweeter is only ~31" from the floor which IMO is not an ideal height for listening. I found I got better sound sitting on the floor rather than sitting in my chair. A third party stand is definitely mandatory and IsoRock GR3 stands are ~$500. 2) To get sub-30 Hz bass an additional amplifier is necessary that also cost an additional ~$900 new. 3) The overall sound of the speaker is very well balanced and the bass is tight due to a sealed enclosure. Gallo deserves a lot of credit in my opinion for not going with the more common (and more efficient) reflex (ported) design. 4) If one includes the cost of the amp, stands, and speaker the retail price of the speaker is over $4K. 5) There are many used units on Audiogon which suggests that people are not keeping this speaker for the long-term. IMO if one is going to spend thousands of dollars on a speaker it should be a speaker to last 20+ years.

Customer Service

Never used

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I auditioned VMPS RM30s, RM40s, Thiel 3.6s, Gallo Ref. 3, B&W of various models less than 5K, Linn speakers, and Wilsons.

Reproduction of vocals and acoustic guitar (as well as any and all high notes) is outstanding. Remarkable imaging. Strikingly unique appearance and highest-quality fit/finish.

IME: none.

Purchase the Anthony Gallo Reference 3 speakers and every—I mean EVERY—visitor to your home will stop dead in their tracks upon spying these uniquely-shaped beauties. Like works of art, they catch the eye and inspire both comment and conversation. Obviously, those reading this review care less about the look of the Gallos than they do their sound. Well fear not, they deliver. In fact, they deliver hugely. As a teenager, I somehow satisfied my love for listening to music without state-of-the-art equipment. Subsisting on Radio Shack’s “Realistic” brand until college, I finally picked up some semi-decent pieces of equipment—the best of bunch being a used Onkyo amp with a bent balance control knob (remember in the 80s when a 40-watt receiver was considered powerful?). In the early 1990s I upgraded my system for 5.1 sound, doubling my watts with Kenwood and Pioneer amps, and bettering my speakers with entry-level Polk and AR models as well as a BSR subwoofer w/ dedicated amp. And all of this kept me happy until recently when a friend (who installs high-end sound systems for a living) starting dropping hints that my 12-year-old equipment had more than done its time. Though I ultimately wound up replacing my entire system, I decided to upgrade my speakers first—and can state that the Anthony Gallo Reference 3s are simply amazing. Early in my research I stumbled across the Gallo Reference 3s on the Internet, and was simply stunned by their dramatic contemporary appearance. I read every review and discussion I could find, and concluded that the R3s were a likely candidate. I dropped in at the nearest dealer, and on a quiet afternoon put the R3s to the test. For comparison purposes, I listened to the Gallos in relation to a slightly lower-priced set of Vandersteens and a slightly more expensive pair of Boston Acoustic speakers…and in doing so covered a price range of $2,000 - $3,000/pr. I closed the doors to the dealer’s private listening suite, and started working my way through various CDs I’d brought. I blasted rock, jazz, and flamenco; scrutinized male and female vocalists; absorbed acoustic and electric guitar. Ninety minutes later, I bought the Gallos right off the floor. The song that sold me was CSN&Y’s Helplessly Hoping; I closed my eyes and for all intents and purposes it sounded as if all four singers were actually right in the room. The Gallos simply vanished, and I was left with nothing but guitar and vocals. Let me repeat this comment: nothing but guitar and vocals. At home, I run the Gallo R3s with a very straightforward system: Rotel components (RSX-1056 processor and RB-1070 130W amp), a Cambridge Audio Azur 640C CD player, and Monster interconnects and cable. The Gallos must strut their stuff in a large living room (30’x 25’) with a two-story ceiling; due to layout constraints, the speakers have to be placed about 17’ apart (shocking, I know). My listening area is also about 17’ away, but I’m happy to report that the Gallo R3s sound even better in my home. Despite this challenging setup they still produce an amazingly coherent sound stage: clear, sailing vocals; gorgeous ringing guitar notes, and crisp highs that would bring an Opera diva to tears. Bass is tight and fast, and can be brought down into sub-sonic range by powering the R3’s second bass coil (with an additional amp). Since purchasing the Gallos I’ve rediscovered my music library. I can’t get enough of Jesse Cook’s acoustical guitar work on Rattle and Burn, or David Gilmour’s vocals and electric guitar on Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb. And listening to Greg Lake’s resonating tenor (and bass guitar) on ELP’s Lucky Man simply makes time stand still. My family and friends who’ve heard the Gallos have been absolutely blown away…literally rendered speechless (not always a bad thing for family). As for home theater, I’ve mated the R3s with Gallo’s Due speaker at center channel, and have found dialogue to be crisp and sound quality and texture superb… In sum, a speaker that plays even better than its phenomenal looks. If you're looking in the $2500 price range, you are cheating yourself if you don't listen to the Gallo R3s.

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n/a

Transparency to rival almost any speaker ever made. Coherence through the midrange to match or surpass ANY speaker I've heard. Treble response so accurate that it rivals ribbons. Excellent bass response that is both tight, and accurate.

Bass doesn't go to the bottom half octave without the additional amp. Most speakers are incapable of reaching this level anyway, and almost NO music has energy at that frequancy. If you want to use them for Home Theater, then I would reccimend the amp, you can forgo the sub then.

Ever since getting a pair of Magnepan 3.6 into my audio setup I've been looking to upgrade my Home Theater speakers. At first I considered going with a full Magnepan setup, but the problem with that is that Magnepans even though producing a huge sound field, have a relatively small sweet spot, not really what you want for Home Theater if you have a multiple seating layout. With their incredible resolution, Magnepans can spoil you for almost any other speakers, and it's been tough to find one that would satisfy me. I have now found that speaker in the Gallo Reference 3. Here's my reasons; Transparency to rival almost any speaker ever made. At least ones that I've heard, and I've heard some pretty good ones like Magnepan 20.1's and the big Quads & Martin Logans. Treble response so accurate that it rivals ribbons but without the problem of matching with a midrange. My one objection with ribbons. Coherence through the midrange to match or surpass ANY speaker I've heard. The crossover between the tweeter and midrange is totally transparent, probably a result of having NO crossover. Excellent bass response that is both tight, and accurate. I do not power the woofers second voice coil, but the magnet structure was designed to handle the power, and you NEVER get the feeling that the speakers are reaching their bass limit. The Gallos have an unusual, almost uncanny ability to disappear completely. This is most stirking with vocalists, as there seems to be a real person right in front of you. I get this effect with the Magnepans, but these speakers are so much smaller that it give a much more pronounced effect. The most incredible off axis performance I've heard since the Ohm Walsh speaker. You can be well off axis, even at a very acute angle, and still get an accurate and appealing stereo image. The 300 degree dispersion pattern of the tweeters is probably mostly responsible for this, but the midrange's lack of any thing to refract off of might be too. These speakers have a visual appearance like no other speaker on earth. They look like the've been designed by a Nuclear Physicist rather than a speaker designer. Compact, and to the point, they do not try to do anything else but create accurate sound reproduction. I think they are as beautiful a speaker as I've ever seen, but I think things like F16 fighter aircraft are beautiful. The Gallo Reference 3 gets my highest recommendation. It's truly a world class speaker with a mid class price.

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Magnepan 3.6r, Magnepan III, Cambridge Soundworks T500, EPI Monitor 1. These are just speakers I am currently running.