The Gale Hi Fi speakers represent the best we have seen in budget speakers. Made in the UK where the competition for good Hi Fi speakers is fierce, this brand really stacks up despite the fact that little is known about the brand in Australia. But in the UK the Gale name is synonymous with quality; they are also made by the same company that makes Mordaunt Short speakers.
The Gale speakers are the result of extensive research and development undertaken in an effort to deliver excellent reproduction of movie soundtracks and music which are being demanded by today's homeowners investing in HD TV and surround sound home theatre technology.
Gale is one of the grand old names in British Hi Fi rescued from obscurity by Audio Partnership, part of the Richer Sounds Empire. They were the must have speakers of the 1970s, but then the brand evaporated, so AP stepped in to annex and re-invent it as a value for money speaker that has all the capability of a lot of speakers that are now being sold for twice the price.
The brand is somewhat overshadowed by other names, however, including stable-mate Mordant-Short. It shouldn't be: Gale continues to make excellent products at ludicrously low prices.
The Series 30 system here is a typical example. This system comprises a pair of tall, potent floor standers, a centre channel and a pair of bipolar side speakers, all of which look the part. They are normally sold at over $2,000 however Digital Home Discounts is knocking them out at sub $900 which is way below cost.
With sophisticated paper cone bass drive units (a single 140mm driver in the 3030, and a pair of 90mm units in both the 3050c and 3060b), they all sport fabric dome tweeter units (a 25mm in the floorstanders, 19mm units elsewhere), they all have simple first order crossover networks and they all have identical 4-8 ohms impedance figures and very similar sensitivity ratings.
The floorstanding 3030 is the most sensitive of the bunch, rated at 90dB, but the 3060b (at 88dB) and the 3050c (at 87dB) don't lag far behind and can be happily driven by even the weediest AV receiver. All three designs use comparatively thin MDF cabinets, keeping the weight and price low. The only big difference is between the front three ported, shielded designs and the rear. The surround speakers are sealed boxes and need no shielding. More importantly, they are bipole designs, so must be used as side speakers, but Gale's bookshelves are a good replacement for those who must have rear-mounted speakers.
