This was a cool story/wish to see come to fruitision, congrats! Thanks for sharing... I have a set of Mach two's on the bench now getting ready for new foams. Never heard a set, I'm anxious to give them a try.
I had a buddy give me a lab 400 and it was all over from there. it needed work but $45 into it and it worked fine. I bought a sta2270 for $100 and a dual tape deck for $50 and picked up a set of early mach ones for $300. Not a bad start . the reciever had some issues so i rescued a sansui 2000 for $40 and it sounded great ! recently i saw an add on fb for a sta2000d with 5 band eq and t-100 speakers all for $300! i drove an hour and half to get it and was'nt dissapointed! i have about $1000 into this 1978-1979 "dream system " which retailed for $878 in the realistic ad back in the day. just gotta shop around i guess but those deals are out there !i love my rat shack system !