Funny you should mention Klipsch. They are one of my favorite brands, I have a pair of CF3 and Kg2. One day I hope to treat myself to something from the middle of their line! One of the reasons I was attracted to the MachOne was the horn midrange and tweeter. "If only", I thought, "those could be cleaned up and made to sound like some Klipsch Belle".
You are right about the speakers of course, they were intended for a large-ish room and maybe close in listening is not their forte (Trilobyte make pun!) Certainly the size of the cabinet and woofer would keep them off your desk. When I get close to one it definitely is not reminiscent of a point source. However, while we are making comparisons to Klipsch speakers, you may note that the larger Klipsch models have similar spatial relations between midrange horn and woofer. I am talking about the aforementioned Belle, La Scalla and the mighty Klipschhorn they all look like the MachOne. But there is so much more difference between the realistic brand and Klipsch that it might be too far a reach to be fair. Unless...
Well I have buttoned up both ModMach's and they are as identical as I can make them. Both have many of VL's suggested modifications tier 1. Here are the exceptions:
1. 10uF capacitor in the crossover is a new 10uF instead of the VL suggested 8.4uF. I would have changed this but I could not find one in time due to impatience. I didnt see a huge difference in VL's FRC anyway.
2. Ditto with the coil and the other capacitor. NOTE: I might go back and do these at a later date.
3. Did NOT open the main compartment into the midrange compartment. I thought I had a better idea but that turned out to be false. But that wrong turn led me to an alternative approach, the famous little box, and that, in addition to my modifications to the plastic tweeter mounting plate, made me very very happy!
4. VL said that stands may cause unpleasant diffraction effects. However, speakers on the floor cause unpleasant dust collection effects. So mine are on stands and tilted back a bit. See photo.
So modifications are done for now. The speakers were moved to my main listening room.
1. The room is typical; roughly rectangular, about 20' x 30' with 9' ceilings, over a basement, mostly carpeted floors, gypsum walls, one wall has two large penetrations one leading to an open stair the other to a kitchen with lots of hard surfaces. The furniture is mostly soft.
2. The hardware is an adcom pre with a Hafler amp. Also tested with a Kenwood KA-7300. Media was played on a Magnavox CDB 570. Tracks are from a compilation disk called Dinner for Two, a Starbucks CD with a good mix of music to compare speakers with.
Results: Wonderous. I bought these for 30$ and they sound better, yes better, than the Klipsch CF3. The CF3 dont perform well in this room because they are so large they need to be placed close to a wall. That and the floor over basement produces an untamed thunderous effect. I love all else about these speakers. However the ModMAchs come out ahead in rendering base tones. You can feel it, but it doesn't make the glassware tinkle or the room sound like Top Gun at the local AMC theater. Lovely. Everything else the ModMachs touch is so fine too. I dont hear the harsh tones from the midrange driver others report since the mods I made.
You are right about the speakers of course, they were intended for a large-ish room and maybe close in listening is not their forte (Trilobyte make pun!) Certainly the size of the cabinet and woofer would keep them off your desk. When I get close to one it definitely is not reminiscent of a point source. However, while we are making comparisons to Klipsch speakers, you may note that the larger Klipsch models have similar spatial relations between midrange horn and woofer. I am talking about the aforementioned Belle, La Scalla and the mighty Klipschhorn they all look like the MachOne. But there is so much more difference between the realistic brand and Klipsch that it might be too far a reach to be fair. Unless...
Well I have buttoned up both ModMach's and they are as identical as I can make them. Both have many of VL's suggested modifications tier 1. Here are the exceptions:
1. 10uF capacitor in the crossover is a new 10uF instead of the VL suggested 8.4uF. I would have changed this but I could not find one in time due to impatience. I didnt see a huge difference in VL's FRC anyway.
2. Ditto with the coil and the other capacitor. NOTE: I might go back and do these at a later date.
3. Did NOT open the main compartment into the midrange compartment. I thought I had a better idea but that turned out to be false. But that wrong turn led me to an alternative approach, the famous little box, and that, in addition to my modifications to the plastic tweeter mounting plate, made me very very happy!
4. VL said that stands may cause unpleasant diffraction effects. However, speakers on the floor cause unpleasant dust collection effects. So mine are on stands and tilted back a bit. See photo.
So modifications are done for now. The speakers were moved to my main listening room.
1. The room is typical; roughly rectangular, about 20' x 30' with 9' ceilings, over a basement, mostly carpeted floors, gypsum walls, one wall has two large penetrations one leading to an open stair the other to a kitchen with lots of hard surfaces. The furniture is mostly soft.
2. The hardware is an adcom pre with a Hafler amp. Also tested with a Kenwood KA-7300. Media was played on a Magnavox CDB 570. Tracks are from a compilation disk called Dinner for Two, a Starbucks CD with a good mix of music to compare speakers with.
Results: Wonderous. I bought these for 30$ and they sound better, yes better, than the Klipsch CF3. The CF3 dont perform well in this room because they are so large they need to be placed close to a wall. That and the floor over basement produces an untamed thunderous effect. I love all else about these speakers. However the ModMAchs come out ahead in rendering base tones. You can feel it, but it doesn't make the glassware tinkle or the room sound like Top Gun at the local AMC theater. Lovely. Everything else the ModMachs touch is so fine too. I dont hear the harsh tones from the midrange driver others report since the mods I made.
. I tried to guess the lower limit. I figured since radio shack gave the resonance of 65Hz I knew it would be about 12db down at ~35Hz (at best). Back then that did not make me happy. As I knew it really could not hit 25Hz 
