I just got my first issue of Gallo’s new email newsletter, which I have copied and pasted into the newsletter. I am proud to be the St. Louis Missouri dealer for Gallo Acoustics speakers and I look forward to the new floor-standing speaker due to come someday.
First Quarter Newsletter
In celebration of our 20th anniversary this year, Anthony Gallo Acoustics is launching a quarterly newsletter. Welcome to the first edition of the Anthony Gallo Acoustics newsletter! We’ll be sending this out on a quarterly basis, keeping you up with news about our latest products, tech tips from our founder and chief engineer Anthony Gallo, and more. If there’s anything you’d like to see discussed in our newsletter, or any topics you’d like to see Anthony tackle, please e-mail us at techsupport@roundsound.com.
Anthony’s Lab Notes – Why Are Our Speakers Round?
A lot of people assume our speakers are round because it looks cool. I have to admit there’s some truth to that, but it’s not the main reason I pioneered spherical speakers more than 30 years ago. I chose the spherical design partly because it’s the strongest geometric shape there is, and partly to minimize diffraction.
Why is it important for a speaker enclosure to be strong? Because if the enclosure vibrates, it will act like a speaker driver, creating a sound of its own. If you read magazines and websites, such asStereophile, that do spectral decay measurements when they review speakers, you’ve probably seen how enclosure resonances can mar the sound of a speaker.
The spherical shape of our speakers makes their enclosures much, much more rigid than an ordinary box speaker could be. This becomes especially important when you’re designing very compact, high-output loudspeakers because of the enormous internal air pressures involved. This is why all our spherical speakers use metal alloys, chosen for their rigidity and acoustical properties.
Diffraction is an unwanted reflection of sound from parts of the speaker other than the drivers themselves. With a conventional box-shaped speaker, there’s a big drop in sound pressure as the sound moves past the face of the speaker and into open space. The change in pressure creates a sound wave of its own that emanates from the corner of the speaker enclosure. This sound wave creates interference patterns and “comb filter” effects when it mixes with the sound coming off the drivers. It boosts some frequencies and cuts others — and as a result, produces unnatural sound.
But our satellite speakers don’t have any corners! Thus, the diffraction is minimal, and what little there is emerges from the edge of the speaker driver itself, so it doesn’t produce interference and doesn’t color the sound.
Other manufacturers have tried making round speakers, but from what we’ve seen, they’ve been unable to overcome the inherent acoustical resonance of the sphere shape. Our patented S2 technology lets us get all the advantages of the spherical shape with zero downsides. But more on that later.
Simply put: When you hear our Nucleus Micro and A’Diva satellite speakers, you’re hearing nothing but the speaker driver. And that’s just the way it should be.
Product News – New Floorstanding Speaker on the Way!
Since we launched it four years ago, the Reference 3.5 floorstanding speaker has earned countless enthusiastic reviews. The Absolute Sound gave it an Editor’s Choice award, 6moons.com gave it a Blue Moon award, and respected reviewer Steve Guttenberg called it one of the 10 best speakers available at any price. So it might come as a surprise that we’re discontinuing it!
We’ll have more details about the new model in future newsletters. Until then, we’ve discontinued production of the Reference 3.5. We don’t have any left.
Latest Reviews – Coming up in the April issue of The Absolute Sound!
The Strada 2 will be on the cover, and Anthony is featured in a Designer’s Roundtable. Be sure to get a copy if you don’t already subscribe!
TAS’s Chris Martins on the Strada 2 & TR-3D subwoofer
The Absolute Sound veteran reviewer Chris Martins tested the new Strada 2 & TR-3D sub and concluded that “Best of all, it may look like an elegant ‘lifestyle’ speaker but it turns out to deliver legitimate, audiophile-grade, big-speaker performance.”
Our new Micro SE and A’Diva SE satellite speakers have been out for only a few months, but the great reviews are already rolling in. See below:
CNet’s Steve Gutttenberg on the Micro SE and A’Diva SE
On CNet, veteran reviewer Steve Guttenberg tested the new satellites, and concluded that “The Anthony Gallo Acoustics’ Micro SE and A’Diva SE are, pound for pound, the best sounding miniature speakers I’ve heard to date. They redefine the performance standard for very small speakers.”
Link: CNet
Sound & Vision’s Mark Fleischmann on the Micro SE
In Sound & Vision, veteran reviewer Mark Fleischmann praised the Nucleus Micro SE, commenting that it offers “transparent sound quality” and a “big soundstage with no restrictive sweet spot.” When listening to stereo music, Mark commented that the soundstage was “…seemingly impossible to undermine with changes in seating position.” That’s great to hear, because it’s exactly what we were going for. We were happy to see that S&V selected the Micro SE as a “Top Pick,” too!
Link: Sound and Vision