Gallo reference /TAS vs Me

Here's something to ponder regarding dealer auditions, from Srajan Ebaen's follow-up (June) to his original review (April) at six.moons.com (Read these if you haven't already):

"As I've said before, pricing a $10,000/pr beater at $2,595/pr is asking for trouble. Say you were a dealer. Would YOU want such an upstart to undermine sales of your pricier spreads? Hell no. Say you did put it on the floor. Wouldn't you do everything in your power to MAKE it sound like a $2,595 speaker ..."

The dealer where I bought mine said he had sold zero other speakers more expensive than the Ref 3s since he started demonstrating them. On the other hand, he had sold 11 pairs of Ref 3s in something like six weeks.

Just something to think about. Dave

Dopogue, if YOU were a dealer, wouldn't you LOVE to have a product that sells LOTS more often per demo than the other alternative? The dealer makes more margin (necessary to stay in business) on 3 pairs of $2500 Gallos SOLD than one pair of $10,000 speakers NOT sold.

Jeffrey, that's great if you don't mind having your multi-megabuck speaker inventory sitting there unsold and gathering dust until you discount it enough to get rid of it. :-)

I too had the same experience with the Gallo's ounding "closed in" and dissapointing. After reading the sparkling review on Six Moons I thought that I should give them a go before I dropped the coins on new mains. However, after about 30 min. of listening I was underwhelmed. One of the most surprising factors was that physical size was much smaller than I expected...not a bad thing..just different than I imagined after looking at them in pictures. I must say though, that they seemed remarkably well built and are very eye catching indeed. I will invest a second listen...

I have not heard the Gallo refernce 3 yet, but have read the Absolute Sound. They did state that the amplifier was very important - "top shelf amplification may be needed". I plan on auditioning them. I hope I can find a dealer that has them set up properly.