Home Cinema Choice Review

October 2002

In a world rife with identikit speakers, James Broomfield is glad to see an audio company with some balls.

There might be a few strange looking sub and satellite systems around, but in any company the Gallo Nucleus Micro systems would stand (or rather roll) out of the crowd.

That's because the Nucleus satellites are four inch spheres, available in many colours. which look like ornamental paperweights. Their size suggests they've been designed to be almost invisible in a home set-up but, when attached to their stands, they're cool enough to command some attention.

For shelf mounting, small rubbers rings have two important functions. Firstly, they stop the spheres rolling off the shelf and secondly, they isolate the speaker so that vibrations aren't passed on and the sound remains untainted.

It must also be said that the Nucleus spheres are best suited to a small room. Handling 100W of power makes the balls punchy and loud but they don't disperse a wide enough sound to create a coherent surround effect in larger, more spacious environments.

The subwoofer, while being small, does resemble an industrial vacuum cleaner. A squat, black cylinder that is actually two units stacked, the subs amplifier and crossover are housed in the upper portion with the driver firing downwards out of the base. It's an unusual, if not exactly pretty, design that you might want to keep on display purely for curiosity value.

The spheres have miniature binding posts on the rear, although the wires supplied are small gauge, solid core copper.

Wiring up poses some options; you can go the normal route, wiring each satellite directly to an amp and taking a line-level signal to the sub. The alternative method is to route a speaker level signal for the front stereo into the subwoofer and then out to the speakers in the normal way.

This method allows the sub's crossover to cream off the low frequency signals and leaves the sat's with the high and mid-range work. This method is preferable as the physical size of the speakers makes them better suited to the upper ranges. Asking a single three inch driver to cover the full sound spectrum is no small request. You run the risk of having to compromise performance at both ends of the scale. To Anthony Gallo's credit, these satellites are incredibly capable but there's no harm in having the subwoofer back up the front stereo pair.

Using this method then, we auditioned the Gallo Nucleus system with Driven, another in our extensive 'bad film, great sound' catalogue.

The satellites impress straight away with the accuracy of their effect placement, particularly so when you consider there's no dedicated tweeter to spot the high-frequency sounds (the most noticeably directional). Their clarity is also a joy to listen to, even when pushed to high volume. That said, the centre channel can be a touch forceful with voices and this becomes more diverting the longer you listen. It's a matter of preferences but this reviewer found himself longing for something more subtle after spending a while with the spheres.

The real star performer here is the subwoofer assembly. It slams out tight, precise bass without ever overpowering the satellites. It can do restrained too, adding an ambient rumble that creeps up on you when you're not expecting it. As a counterpart to the Nucleus spheres' highly directional effects, it's perfect. The price does make the purchase of these speakers a definite lifestyle choice - for £1,250 you can buy a decent set of full-sized cabinet speakers. However for those who have a fair bit to spend but lack the space (or, more importantly, a tolerant spouse) to go for the big in-your-face ones, the Nucleus system is a wise and stylish buy.