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Gale 401a speakers

Anybody else here using these old wonders?
I bought a pair of these for my second system.
A year later and now with three rebuilt pairs I have come to love these things and they now reside most of the time in my main system.

A thirty five year old design has no right to sound so good.Or look so good.
Over the years I have owned all sorts of speakers-electrostats,BBC monitors,horns and all sorts of dynamic speakers and on balance I have to say none were better than these Gales.A very complete and coherent sounding speaker.Most of all they sound really big but never like boxes.

A much misunderstood speaker.By reputation they they are very current hungry and require monster SS power amps.
But in reality they sound best with good tube amps like the Almarro 318B.Tubes seem to take their sound to a different level-some sort of electrical compatability going on I guess.

They warrant fastidious reconditioning.It is very easy to ruin them if reconditioning components are not appropriate.

There is a lot of information at the Gale Google Group.
jtgofish

Showing 2 responses by jtgofish

jtgofish OP
490 posts
 
Yes crossovers have been rebuilt.
Also bypassing the attenuators and fuses helps free up the sound.Fixed value resistors have replaced the attenuators.
The woofers have had both surrounds and spiders replaced.New midranges from the last production run too.
Also the fibreglass damping can pack down so all this has been replaced too.
A lot of work and expense but the result is something pretty special.

Agreed not all tube amps will drive them.The Almarro318b has big SS type bass control.Also the humble but excellent Ming Da EL 34A/B drives them very well.
jtgofish OP
490 posts
 
Funflyer,
Of course these were pretty expensive in their day.They were slightly cheaper than the QUAD ESL 57 so in todays terms given the price of current QUADs this equates approximately to the cost of a small car.

Also their design aesthetics are timeless.People assume they are very modern.I also love the story behind their designer Dr Ira Gale.A very colourful character.When not running a speaker company he was Andy Warhols art dealer in London.
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