SETUP
To support the front left and right speakers, Gallo supplied stands made specifically for the Stradas. They cost $450 per pair, but that seems reasonable once you see how slick the speakers look when attached to them. I used the provided table stands for the center and surround speakers. The table stands allow the speakers to be angled vertically - an important consideration because while the tweeter's horizontal dispersion is 180º, its vertical dispersion is a mere 30º. Thus, you'll sacrifice treble if the speaker is aimed too high or too low. The TR-3 went into my subwoofer sweet spot, the place where I've found a single subwoofer performs best from my usual listening position. In my room, this happens to be between the center and right front speakers, but your room's sub sweet spot will almost surely be different.

The manual suggests a subwoofer crossover point between 80 and 120 Hz when the Stradas are stand- mounted. I noticed, though, that no matter what cross- over point I chose, certain voices - such as Gene Sim- mons's growling vocals on "Cold Gin" from Kiss's Double Platinum - lacked body. I figured that moving the Stradas closer to the wall behind them to pump up their bass response would help, so I placed the left/right speakers 8 inches away and the Strada Center 4 inches away. This helped, although the upper bass still seemed a little weak.