Gale 401 speakers

I think there are at least one or two members here who still run a pair of Gale 401s - one pair rather wonderfully restored and sporting some far more effective stands than the rather inadequate originals.

I remember the Gales - they were in an audition of 12 or 13 speakers that I did back in 1975: but they were among 9 or 10 that didn’t make it past the first track because I didn’t like the sound at all - for some reason the term  ‘thin sounding’ comes to mind when thinking of them, though after all these years it is hard to be definitive. I ended up with IMF TLS50s - which lasted me till I picked up their top-of-the-range stablemate some 15 years or so later, at that point passing to my brother in law using an LP12 fronted system, then two years ago they moved back to my house, now in a son’s bedroom ...and they still sound pretty good. 

I worked at a hifi shop which was owned by the Australian importers of Gale, Accuphase and Naim, (plus Linn/Grace/Supex). Some staff were mad for Accuphase and some for Naim. And the debate regarding driving the 401s with a 32/250 or a huge Accuphase pre/power was robust. My impression was the 401s were better hanging of the Naim combo. Store demos were always played very loud using Supertramp. Typical hifi wank for the great unwashed. 

The chrome version looked so sexy and they were held in high regard so I lusted after a pair. Inevitably I did step up to some 401s briefly from Spendor BC1s using a 12/160. My romance with them didn't last the night. The wallowing bass was unbearable. The boxed in sound was awful.

Of course we used the rotten chrome stands and we were clueless about rigid stands, (some gurus advocated suspending them from the ceiling on chains!), and often they were positioned hard against the wall for more bass.

Looking back I realise that I never heard them at their best. But boy they looked good.