Gale 401's

They also benefit from a really good tube preamp.I use a Supratek Cabernet 300B and it makes a huge difference-opening up the soundstage and allowing the beautiful tonality to come through.They are capable of really excellent timbre but like the Magicos this will not be revealed unless the preamp and power amp are up to it.Best power amps I have used is an Usher R1.5 which is a Nelson Pass design 150 watts /channel.A Musical Fidelity A5 was also very good [255 watts] but not quite the musicality of the Usher.I recently tried the March Audio p452 which is the latest classD Purifi and has heaps of power and drive and clarity but neither the musicality or soundstage depth or height of the better SS power amps .It is hard to make the Gales sound mechanical but the class D succeeds!

Ira Gale was my brother. I was about 16 when he was actively working on the speakers and wound up working for him when I was in college. One of his favorite albums to demo the speakers was Thelma Houston and Pressure Cooker, “I’ve Got the Music in Me”, an early direct to disc recording. I only recently stumbled across this post and thoroughly enjoyed reading the messages. I’ve come to know some of the names mentioned over the years, mostly thanks to John Mayberry, David from Vintage Audio and others through the Gale Audio Google Group. FYI, Ira was partial to SAE and Mark Levinson and definitely was a fan of “more power is better”. It’s so wonderful to read these posts going strong more than 25 years after his passing. I have been working on a book about his life for quite some time, nearing completion. Should anyone have met him personally or worked with him, I’d love to hear from you. I may be reached at bgalephd@gmail.com.

Best wishes,

Bruce

@bgale Sorry for the loss of your brother. I worked at a dealer in Columbus, Ohio where we carried the chrome model w matching stands. The Speaker company. They always sounded great but in the conservative Midwest were a tough sell . Had we been sharper, we would have gone with wood cabinets.

Please do let us know about progress on the book. My absolute best to you.

Jim

Thanks @tomic601. I can only imagine selling in the Midwest. Appreciate the encouragement re the book. Goal is to have it done this year.

Bruce

I recently went down a vintage audio rabbit hole and was intrigued by the Gale speakers. And just wanted to pipe in and say today received a fully rebuilt/restored set of Gale 401A's from David at Vintage Gale. Currently breaking them in, but they sound good right out of the box.

David did everything including crossovers. I even shipped him a pair of Cardas copper connectors to upgrade the speaker binding posts.

Powering them with a set of Aragon Palladium 2 mono blocks. Everyone says they need power, so that's the biggest set I got. They're running through a rebuilt Sonic Frontiers SFL-2 with VCaps.

Currently rocking out to Gimme Shelter. Looking forward to see how they develop after I get some hours on them.