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
Rad, did you buy the subwoofer amp? If so, does adding it improve the bass extention as much as TAS said? How about that 'thickening' he/she mentioned?
Hmm, Guess I'll have to revisit my dealer. I wonder if the fact that we also heard Sonus Fabers and JM Labs in the same store colored my impressions?
I can tell you that the Gallo's are the best all around speaker I have ever owned (Maggie's, Proacs, Soliloqy's, Mission 770's, Sonus Faber's). The only speaker other speaker that challenges them is my pair of System Audio
SA2K's which is the best monitor sized speaker I have ever heard anywhere. The Gallo's have a great tweeter and if you set them up properly (away from the walls and well into the room and listen in the relative nearfield) they provide a transparent and spacious window into the performance. I have not noticed any colorations.....every source material shows it's own virtues with little interference from the speaker.
One concern I've read about is the low soundstaging due to the fact that they're rather short.

Did any of you who own the Gallos find that problem compared to your previous speakers?
I agree with Rad 21 -- you're describing a pair that is not broken in. The break-in period begins after they've been playing about 6 hours and lasts for about 100 hours, if my pair is typical. I was also worried about image size, since my speakers were 8-driver Gallo Ultimates, over 4 feet tall. the Ref 3s have at least as large an image with an incredible soundstage.

I'm using 12 wpc SET monoblocks to power them, plus a 100 wpc stereo SS amp, thru a HSU crossover set at 43 Hz, to power the woofers'second voice coils. The low bass is awesome this way, but it is very good even without the second amp. I'd like to at least try Gallo's subwoofer amp, but the current setup is going to be hard to beat.

These are fabulous speakers.