Opinions on these amps?

The Gallos are power hungry and have a difficult load to drive as I recall.

In these situations, you need a high power, high current SS amp usually in order to get optimal performance.

What is your budget?

You might consider looking at some of the newer Class D amps out there for best value.

Using a tube pre-amplifier will also help determine what amp might work best, generally those with higher input impedance, say 50K ohms or above.

I've researched amps for this kind of application extensively recently in looking for an amp that fit my system optimally.

Amps I know that qualify worth considering would be some Musical Fidelity SS amps, Wyred 4 Sound, newer Bel CAnto ref series models (not originals that use stock Ice Power modules with only 10K input impedance), and SS amps from companies like Audio Research and perhaps Cary that also specialize in tube gear and design their SS amps to work well with tube pre-amps.

Rsfphil,

60 watts may be fine in terms of getting the speakers loud enough but not all 60 watt amps are created equal in terms of being able to drive speakers in a manner that delivers smooth response top to bottom. 'Difficult load" generally refers to impedance dips/variations at different frequencies. The effect on the sound is often a less than optimal low end at various volumes.

I seem to recall that the Gallo refs do present a difficult load in this sense but I could be mistaken.

Tube amps have higher output impedances and in general do not work as well with "difficult load" speakers where impedances can drop to 4 ohms or lower, in particular for low range bass frequencies. This is just the general case though with tube amps versus SS categorically. I've heard some report tube amps may work just fine in these cases. Sometimes a separate powered subwoofer might be thrown in the mix to help compensate. SS will work better in generalthough IMHO for these kinds of speakers. Tubes can still be introduced if desiraed in the pre-amp and even in the source (tube DAC for example) if desired regardless of speaker design as long as the pre-amp output impedance matches well to the amp input impedance.