Gallo reference /TAS vs Me


I spent a fair amount of time listening to the new reference speakers from Gallo a few months ago and dismissed them as closed in-particularly in the mids- and opaque in the soundstage and generally disapointing. Now TAS puts out a review which goes against everything I heard. Am I losing my hearing or are TAS and I listening to two different speakers? FYI the dealer used Musical Fidelity electronics with the Gallos and I listen with Maggie 3.5s and BAT electronics.
banksfriend
Divo: I have the Mk 1 Super Eclipses. Dopogue: I tried the Gallos pointing straight forward; woofer in, woofer out, etc. The upper mid forward thing is lessened by the toe-in. (Side wall reflection makes it worse, maybe….?)

I think I figured out the problem. I re-tubed the Cary SLAM-100's and noticed the new KT-88's biased lower on their own than the previous set. When I brought the new tubes' bias up to the former level, the upper-mid forwardness came back (to some degree). When I backed off the biasing, it is greatly reduced. (I will have to check the Cary website to make sure I am biasing correctly.) Who's to say, at this point, whether the major difference comes from the new tubes themselves or the lower biasing? Perhaps both. Maybe lower biasing more will sound better yet.

Without this forwardness and with the greater integration, the result reminds me of a top-notch monitor with a bit of extra lower extension: open, detailed, images like crazy, engaging, etc. Now, if I could just fill in the bass more.... (The Super Eclipses have bass and dynamics that help lend impact and scale.)

Has anybody tried the Gallo sub-amp to co-drive the woofer vs. another separate sub from another manufacturer?
I just spoke to John at Gallo and the sub amp is not yet avaliable. They expect to get the latest prototype in the next couple of days. It seems that they decided to make a couple of changes at the last minute and this has slightly delayed release of the amp. John assured me that the 240 wpc amp running just the 2nd voice coil of the woofer makes for some VERY impressive bass. This with a good tube amp running the rest of the speaker should make this speaker sound fantastic. If anyone is able to get one soon, please be sure to post your impressions. It is also suggested that if you run the eq on the amp at +6, it will help to break the woofer in faster. If you are listening to music you might want to back that down as the bass will be too overpowering and not intigrate well (the +6 position is only for break in purposes).
Anyone of you guys bought the Ref IIIs to replace any Paradigm speakers? I currently have the Paradigm Active 40 and Active CC and am wondering if this setup would be an upgrade to what I have. Any comments will be appreciated.

Thanks
Also had another question... .these spearks are available with black or stainless accents and black/cherry/maple bases. I have only seen pictures of the stainless accent with the maple bottom. Has anyone seen or have pictures of the black accents and the maple bottom?
Someone mentioned that a dealer once hooked up the Gallo Ref 3's incorrectly. The dealer did not notice that the binding posts have SINGLE wire hookups, NOT bi-wire, even though they look like bi-wire pairs of binding posts.

The top pair is the only pair you use from your main amplifier. The bottom pair is for the dedicated, sub amp input.

The dealer just hooked up the receiver's outputs to the lower binding posts (intended for the sub-amp in section).

Could this account for the "closed in" sound at the start of this thread?