Gallo 3.1 sounds slow and veiled...why?

I can't speak to the Paradigm Active 40's but I had Gallos for several years. One of the last amps I used with mine was a Unico Secondo and it was a great match for these speakers so I don't think it is the amp. In fact I liked it better than any other amp I used with the speakers. I had all Acoustic Zen cables when I bought the Gallos. I also had a heavily modded jolida 502b which is 60 watts and I thought it was a bad match too, maybe not enough power. So I started trading amps. A McIntosh 6900, a wyred4sound ST500, Clayton S40, the Unico, and finally ayon Spirit II back to 60 watts a channel and tubes. Somewhere along the way I tried a few other speaker cables including Kimber 8TC which were a better match than the AZ. I ended up with Morrow audio cables. If this had been my first system change I might not have had to go through all those amps. I would try some Morrow cables before anything else. They really opened my system up with the gallos. YMMV. I think you also need at least 400 hours to get them to open up. Good luck.

Alright folks...here's some new info.
A friend came by to audition the Gallos in question and agreed that the Paradigms were far more transparent and 'alive'. We were mystified as the difference shouldn't have been so great...regardless of wires. Now the Unico has been in storage for about a year and a half and it's been moved from Northern Canada to Vancouver Island...what if the amp were faulty? We took the Unico to his house and....it sounds the same (worse) on his speakers (Tannoy)...IT"S the FREAKIN' AMP...probably the tubes. I grabbed his Anthem power amp so now I can use the raw output from the DAC 1 into the Anthem / Gallo and the same output into the Paradigms (also using Anthem power inside) 'Apples to apples'....stay tuned for that test as the house is currently asleep.

Templetech - I don't own the Gallos, but definitely recall reading a review (Stereophile or elsewhere) stating that the Gallos not only needed breaking in, they needed SEVERE breaking in. The reviewer actually placed heavy blankets over top of them for a few days and played them continuously at HIGH playback levels. He went on to say that he believes many people have heard them without being properly broken in, which obviously leaves an "unimpressive" impression... good luck with your amp/situation!

I had 2 pair of Gallo 3.1's that I blindly bought locally years ago. One pair was brand new, not even opened. The other pair was fully broken in.

They both sounded average to me. Personally, I cant believe people pay so much for them. I know many of you love them, and thats great....but in my opinion there price should be around $1350 brand new at most.

Since selling these, Ive heard them at a dealer..still just found them to be just ok.

I have now listened to the Gallos (powered from Anthem) compared to the Paradigms...both using the Benchmark DAC 1 as source and pre. The Gallos sound better but still not on par with the Paradigm Active 40's. The Gallos are perhaps a little more refined on the treble but mids are not as defined or as detailed and the bass on the Paradigms is vastly superior...tight, powerful and completely integrated. Now to be fair...there is no second power amp on the gallos to power the woofers but....that's a chunk more $$$ just to match the Paradigms. I'm not a Paradigm fan in general...find them rather clinical and lacking but...the actives may very well stay with me for good! I'm having my Unison retubed and checked over and will run the Gallos from that for a few weeks...see how that pans out.