CES 2013: Anthony Gallo Acoustics

January 30, 2013 Editorial Staff CES 2013 11

Anthony Gallo Acoustics, aka “Round Sound”, has been making metal spheres sing for some time now, and to considerable acclaim. I spent two hours, one Fall day some years ago in the now-defunct Sound Images in Northern VA, listening to Reference 3.1 loudspeakers driven by a Conrad-Johnson solid state amp and being utterly captivated.

Here at CES, William Fried, the VP of Operations at Anthony Gallo, was showing off some new loudspeakers, the Strada 2, the A’Diva SE and the Micro SE. The latter two are … well … ball-shaped, and look pretty much identical to the models they supplement, the change coming to the inside, of course. Single drivers (not coincident) means no cross-over, but the frequency response carries from 80Hz up to 22kHz (for the A’Diva SE).

For the Strada 2, the changes were a bit more comprehensive, but had more to do with the topology than materials. I couldn’t find a better description than what Gallo told Srajan Ebaen of 6moons, which he copied into his review of the Strada 2, so here that is:

“I am really excited! The production Strada 2 have been in for almost a month and I just can’t pull myself away. It’s happened to me before but just for a few days, not weeks at a time. And there’s no end in sight. I am so happy that I have to express my appreciation once again. You had the largest influence on my decision to shift the CDT transition point up to 6kHz. By doing so it forced certain driver parameters to change which all culminated in improvements I still can’t believe. A 3dB increase in sensitivity is just one of several more important improvements which materialized. I should have realized all this sooner. Just cut two layers off the voice coils and you’ll never go back. Lower inductance, lighter moving mass along with the narrowing of the magnetic gap allows the transient snap and detail to finally rival that of the CDT. The new wave-launch pattern approximates a mini line source from 1kHz up with projection into the room reminiscent of a horn but with true 180° horizontal dispersion top to bottom. This also gives it the ability to sound the same from whisper to eviction levels with no loss of detail, coherence or 3D holography. Works equally well in a one-foot near-field setup (min. distance) to well over 30 feet away. Even outdoors it carries effortlessly. Oh yeah, we will be offering an outdoor version shortly. All that needs change are the screws in the back (to be replaced by a stainless version). But all this pales in comparison to just how much more natural, organic and emotionally involving they are now. Sorry that I’m gushing. All I’m trying to say is that you were the catalyst behind all this and my ears are so f*****g happy! – Anthony Gallo




Related Articles

11 Comments

  1. I haven’t had a chance to audition either of these speakers but wondering if you have any thoughts on the Orb Mod2 vs the Gallo A’Diva? Seems like a massive price difference. I’ll probably end up demo’ing both since they both offer in home demos.. From the various reviews, it seems like a toss up and the designer for Gallo created ORB so probably fairly comparable.

    • Hi Sean,

      I’m the publicist for Anthony Gallo Acoustics. Just to be clear, the guy who started Orb Audio was never a designer for Anthony Gallo Acoustics. Anthony Gallo has always been the genius behind his company’s brilliant speaker designs. I know I’m biased, but Orb’s can’t hold a candle to Gallo’s speakers. I have no idea who even designs Orb’s speakers, but their designs aren’t related to Gallo at all other than they are spherical. And I’m posting this from myself, not as a comment from Gallo. I encourage you to try the new SE’s, you’ll be blown away 🙂

  2. Strada 2 for a Center Channel or A’Diva Ti sufficient? I haven’t been able to determine if a Strada 2 is simply 2x A’Diva Ti but still researching to clarify this.

    From an A/V Receive perspective, I’m looking at the Marantz 1603 which is 50watts/all channels 7.1. Do you think this will be sufficient for the A’Diva Ti’s?

    • In an HT setup, my feeling is that the center channel is the most important — spend there. And yeah, 50wpc should be enough for an A’Diva Ti ….

  3. Commandav is great, as is Deja Vu Audio (they’re mostly low watt tube people there) and Gifted Listener.

  4. just curious…what was Gallo driving the Stradas with???
    thanks for all the great stuff…fab read

  5. Sound Images in N va? Where, when? Who was the proprietor? Must have missed that store. It seems most in the DMV are caput! A shame. Just a small few, that I’m aware of … I happen to know Pierre Sprey at one time happened to like these, CDT-Strata spkrs ultra modded to his specs, of course ….

Comments are closed.