Post photos of your systems/rooms here! (Part 8)

Ooh, man. Love those big eyeballs in a cage! Real space age, alien, and groovy.

 

Nah, the sad part is that I kinda like it this way. I do need to get rid of stuff that I am not actively using and basically keep two systems "late night - acoustic stuff" system and "rock on - balls to the wall" system

I used to just have one nice system, but somehow things got out of hand and I got addicted to swapping amps. I have a big headphone system in the office that keep me busy when I am on computer, but I have been completely neglecting it as of lately. It's a crazy hobby I tell you

 

If you ever want to sell the Aleph, let me know.....

 

.....and I bet there would be a few takers for the Stax ELS81s as well!!! They should be front and centre.

 

are those pretty rare?

 

WOW

What a cool collection of some of my favorites, PRIMARE D20 CD Player and Symphonic Line amps below ..
on top of that that strange looking speakers PLUS a beautiful persian rug !
BUT
LESS is MORE
Now get rid of some of the lower class stuff for a second, third or fourth system and you're close to perfection.

What are your favorites ?

Tell us and then get rid of the rest - re-arrange and take another pic - you may keep 2 rigs in one room - no problem, but don't clutter your rack with gear, it loses it's value fascination that way ..
My 2 cents

 

"value fascination"

 

I thought the same thing.

 

Well call me silly, but I am into this for the music not gear or value. Gear accumulates as a side effect of trying to get best sounding system (to my ears), since the only way I know what sounds better is to compare it myself in my room with other stuff I know.

 

More is less? More better

Pass Aleph 30 is very nice with SAP speakers, so is Abraxas 6L6 pentode amp, Symphonic Line pre is great I sold a much more expensive tube pre after I got it. New VAC PA80/80 is really working out well with Gallo speakers. I sill need to make up my mind about what to sell and keep, but I am sure I will have fan listening to a lot f music in the process.

Still can't find a fully satisfying amp for them

They are on the rare and desired side of things

 

As above, beautiful Mac pics!

 

Yes, the C22ce & Mc275 are newer versions of the original. All the original beauty without the original issues. All modern parts inside with balanced in/outs.

I'm moving things around. I will post the entire system as soon as I figure out what goes where. Just picked up a McIntosh MR88 at Fedex today. I need some shelf space.

Stock picture.

 

I thought so. Thanks.

 

And size matters?

 

Nice unit. Thanks for the info.

 

thanks for all the photo's everyone,here's some of my budget system

 

Here is mine minus the coffee table, it has been removed!!! Oh yea the amp in the pic is my backup Super Baldwin, my reference amp is my Korneff 45.

Jay

 

I am so.... jealous! I love to have a pair of Khorns.

 

Same here, I always see them for around $2500 which isn't too bad, I just don't have the right kind of room for them. One corner is open to a hallway the other has a fireplace in it. I am stuck putting my JBL L36 on the fireplace which is kind of a tight fit. My wife bought a monstrosity of an enteratainment center when we moved in (back when I had my own spare bedroom for listening) so the best wall for speakers is gone now. Our next house will have a gameroom for sure with unobstructed corners!!!

 

The closest to "live" sound I've experienced on a home system was through a pair of Khorns powered by a SET amp and an iPod.

 

Thanks guys for the kind words, I do have an SET amp that powers them. They have been upgraded with 2" drivers and 2" tractrix wooded horns so the efficentcy is unreal, with less distortion. They do sound very much like a live venue!!!

Jay

 

LMK is you want to sell those Gallos!

I had the original plastic balls, like yours, then stupidly "upgraded" to the metal ones. To me Anthony never equalled the sound of the original Nucleus. I do notice you have the bass ball facing to the rear - I never tried that! How to you compare the sound that way vs. facing front?

 

i just replaced my original copy of my 1990/'93 PIONEER VSX-D1S stereo receiver that i bought back in 2003, with a minty, LOW usage copy, complete with original box;



crazy thing is... i could SWEAR that it actually sounds WAY better than my original!!
perhaps there was some general cheapening of internal components somewhere in this receiver's production run?

or perhaps some/most of the internals of my original were going bad/wearing out?

 

I hear you! I tried the metal balls and 3.1 etc speakers and to my ears original polyethylene balls in space cage sounded better. I heard them in late 90's and wanted to get them for some time after that but no one was selling. I got small Apogees and never had an opportunity to buy Gallos until recently when I sold Apogees I stumbled on a pair for a very good price.

The things I like about polyethylene version:

1) Ability to tilt each ball individually dialing in the sound perfectly
2) Juts a single cap in the back serves as tweeter crossover. I want to get different caps to experiment
3) Ability to turn the bottom ball backwards thus creating a true dipole speaker. This does wonders to the soundstage. It's much better, I kid you not, more depth with more precise positioning and overall much more realistic. Rivals better electrostatics and planar speakers like my Stax, Apogee ribbons without that diffused sound-field that speakers like Ohm have.
4) Deep punchy bass and mid-bass. Metal versions had a bit of color and smearing, these do not, especially if you Blu-Tack the balls to space cages.

I believe that high density polyethylene was incredibly good choise for these balls, but as mentioned on Gallo's webpage they stopped using it due to cost and the fact that aluminum balls on Barcelona stand looked much prettier and were easier to make.

I did a bit of research when these first came out and discovered, as I mentioned on other forums, that "plastic" is actually High Density Polyethylene (HDP) very light and extremely resonance-proof stuff. It converts vibration to heat instead of storing it. HDP is also very rigid, strong and durable material and does really not degrade with time. This stuff is also used in personal armor, vehicle armor, bow strings, climbing equipment and in such critical stuff as hip, knee, and for spine implants (UHDP).

By using HDP in combination with spherical enclosure these Gallo minimized colorations and created very lightweight speakers that can produce killer bass. Getting the same bass out of normal wooden box speaker would have required huge boxes with a lot of bracing as I know since I had a lot of those.

I am surprised that this material is rarely used in consumer speakers since a lot of expensive pro speakers and PA systems use it. Pro speakers use mostly thin walled boxes, these Gallos spheres are light but thick walled. I guess it does not "look" good so designers dismiss it.

 

Hi, I had wanted to buy a pair of the original Gallos but had heard that the CDTs delaminated over time and couldn't be repaired or replaced. Do you know is there any truth to that? If not, I'll have to start haunting eBay and Audiogon, since it doesn't sound like you are about to part with yours!