Gallo reference /TAS vs Me

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?

I strongly believe that the Musical Fidelity amps were the culprits. The only MF amps that I've ever heard sound anything but harsh and shut in are the super-pricey TriVista line, and even then they're bettered by many components at half the price.

My last two (unfavorable) experiences with MF were with Dynaudio and B&W speakers. I wanted to hear the speakers, but instead the MF source components' weaknesses came through instead with a glaring high end and no soundstage. Switching the electronics in both cases actually gave me the demos I was looking for.

I advise you to go back to the dealer and see if they can switch something around for you to hear them again in a different light.

Graham

"I still hear a fatiguing, forward, ("shouty") upper-mid prominence. Does anybody else have a similar problem with the Gallos?"

Kalan, if you read the BFS review, it says the Gallos are very critical of backward-forward tilt. More backward tilt and the sound becomes warm; more forward tilt and the upper-midrange and treble comes forward. Experiment with the adjustable spikes.

That shouty quality usually occurs due to flutter echo, which comes from two parallel reflective surfaces in the room. If it is the side walls, or the ceiling/floor, then placing speakers in the room that have wider dispersion than previous speakers will fit with your experience. Obviously damping those surfaces or breaking them up, with a bookcase, a rug, a coffee table, etc can help. Also, moving a little closer to the speakers to get more direct sound can reduce the problem.