Gallo Ref 3's for musician?


Friends, I am building a new system for my practice space and would appreciate your thougts. I am a semi-professional musician (get paid but not enough to eat) with tenot sax and clarinet as main horns. I am working a on my improvisational skills by playing along with the greats - Stitt, Ammons, Bill Evans, Brubeck, and Getz, and with vocalists like McCrae and Cassandra Wilson. I am particularly into samba these days as well. My practice space is appx 13'x30' with sheetrock walls, carpet over concrete. The ceiling is a sloping cathedral. Speaker placement is unlimited in the room, and there is very little furniture, all of which can be moved as needed.
My needs are simple, though perhpas not simple to satisfy. I am a student of technique and tone. I want a speaker that is accurate; one that, to the extent possible, faithfully reproduces the true tone, color and pitch of the recorded instruments. And I need a speaker that throws a wide soundstage. When I honk along, I tend not to stay in one place, but try to find a spot that places me in the group. I am also looking for a speaker that has a good vertical stage as well - that sounds strong whether standing or sitting.
After some initital research I came across the Gallo's. The words people use seem to match my needs with regards to accuracy and soundstage and overall musicality. As there is no dealer within reach (according to the Gallo website), I am looking to you folks for your thoughts and suggestions in the $2k range - new or used.
I am also looking at Rogue componants, on the lower end or an integrated like the Tempest Magnum, PL Prologue 2 or the Cayin a88. I like the idea of being able to fine tune the sound with tubes.
I appreciate your assistance and thoughts.
deliberate1
Whoa, there, Richard. Remember that the Gallos you first heard and loved at my
place were -- and are -- driven by 12 wpc of SET power, in an 18 x 40' room.
They LOVE tubes. And they do NOT need high current amps to shine.

Not that this has anything at all to do with the original poster's thoughts and
concerns :-)
I second the above comments as I also have the 3.1 and find them to be very musical and I listen to hard bop jazz 99% including morgan, brooks, ammons, mobley, donaldson etc...had the magnepans before and these and definitely more dynamic however the maggies were better in the vocal dept. Be aware that the gallo's need at least 100 hrs of break time to sound really good and that many people dismiss these speakers too prematurely. I don't have the experience with the amps you mentioned but currently using tubed audio research gear with 12ax7 tube rolling with success.
Mr Pogue, of course, is right. I did not mean to disparage tube gear. His system sounds spectacular, better than mine as a matter of fact. He is driving the 2nd voice coil, using a Gallo Sub Amp, to very good effect.

So, looks like the Refs sound great no matter what you drive 'em with, as long as it's good quality gear...

-RW-
Friends, I am greatful for your replies. The Gallos will remain top on my dance card.
Some of you mentioned what you use to drive these speakers. I'd appreciate any other suggestions.
Forgive my nubeness, but is "power" from a tube amp the equavlent to "power" from solid state or are there other considerations.I ask because Dopogue runs them with 12wpc SET and others suggest a min of 100 watts (I assume from SS), with more the better. I am tending towards a tube rig for that tunability. Any specific recommedations for this type of power source would be very helpful. I live in rural Maine. Radioshack is my closest "high end" dealer. And they appear, at the moment, to be out of SOTA tube gear.
Thanks again
A few notes. I see there's a pair here on Audiogon today being sold by a dealer who's asking $1845. Says the original MSRP was $3,000, but when they were introduced they cost $2595 (got mine for $2500 new). All this is just to help you in bargaining :-)

As to tube vs. SS watts, there's something in what you say about the greater "oomph" from a tube watt, but I know for a fact that some of the pre-production tweaking was done using a 10 watt SS amp. I think the Gallos must have a very benign impedance curve, because their 88 dB sensitivity suggests that low powered amps shouldn't work. Yet they do, at least some of them, like mine. Feel free to contact me off-line if you think I might be able to help further. Dave