I Needed These Mach Two's Like I Needed Another Hole In The Head

[Grayhouse]

But the price was to good to pass up...FREE

They had a sticker on 'em for five bucks at an estate sale, but since they needed new surrounds and the cat runnin it didn't know if they even worked or not he said I could have 'em for free....who was I to argue with him, right? The last Mach's I heard were the Mach One's and that was back when I was still in High School in the late 70's. Anybody out there with a pair of these that can tell me anything about them. I remember the One's were a pretty decent sounding rock speaker. These appear to be in pretty good shape except that they will need new surrounds and probally dust caps as well....damn kids. The surrounds look like they could be tricky though. There glued to the cones from behind. Anybody out there ever replace the surrounds on these before? The cabinets are in pretty nice shape except one cab has some water stains to the top. A light sanding. A little stain and a couple coats of tung oil and she'll be fine. The grills have a couple of tweaks here and there but nothing to major. Also it looks like there missing there badges as well. Hey, for free I guess I can't complain to much.

 

[MarkAnderson]

Most excellent score, Grayhouse. Do a search here. Seems to me somebody posted recently about an exact-fit foam kit for these. General consensus is that these were an improvement on the Mach 1. Kencat has two pair of the 2's. I'm sure he'll chime in. - Mark

 

[macaltec]

I was just looking at some Mach ones on e-bay and noticed a couple of foam kits available. They might be the same.

mac

 

[Kencat]

It was an offer you couldn't refuse eh?

Most excellent score, Grayhouse. Do a search here. Seems to me somebody posted recently about an exact-fit foam kit for these. General consensus is that these were an improvement on the Mach 1. Kencat has two pair of the 2's. I'm sure he'll chime in. - Mark

You beat me to it Mark. I was just looking at the post and figured, yup, better get a congrats out to Grayhouse.

Grayhouse...I think you'll like the Mach 2s. Do a search on them here and you'll find some of mine and others' impressions on them, even a little comparo with the JBL L100s. Looks like a little project there with the surrounds. Maybe you could document the process for us (me ?) as I will be needing to do the foams in my 2nd set, and I've never done a refoam yet.

Will be cool to hear your impressions when you are finished.

Ken C.

 

[Grayhouse]

Thanks guys. I did the search and was pleasently surprised to find that they have a very good folllowing here. I knew the one's were good...at least from what I remember from 30 year old + memories. Now I can't wait to get these things running. I found the link to SpeakerWorks.net somebody placed here and they seem to have exact replacements for the Mach I and II so I'll place in an order on monday. I'll do a full documentation for you guys. It should be interesting since I've never replaced a dustcap before. I know I don't need to replace the caps but I'm real anal when it comes to such things....it'll just look whole lot better with new ones :yes:

Now I just gotta figure out where the hell I'm gonna put 'em if I like 'em :scratch2:

 

[madpioneer]

Grayhouse,
just look in here too see a big fan of Mach speakers.

Look Here!!!

I had two Mach Two woofers professionally refoamed over a year ago. Cost around $130. Just got a refoam kit from ebay shipped in for around $30. Spent a late afternoon early evening on one woofer on Friday. Early afternoon on Saturday on the second woofer. By 10 pm Saturday night I was listening to them. The next day Sunday I opened them up some.

Was a very easy job. Much easier than I ever imagined. It looks intimidating but once you jump in you get very confident very quickly. Just remember to take your time have patience and remove as much old foam as possible without damaging the cone. The hardest part about refoaming Mach Two woofers is centering the new foam. It seems to want to settle off center. Just keep working it and you can get it centered. The two speakers on the right side of my pics are the ones I just refoamed last weekend. I have pics and info about Machs posted in the Gallery under speakers. I have owned my 4 Mach Two's since new in 1986. They are my main and most favorite speakers. They sound great! Can handle anything you thro at em'! I also own a pair of Mach Ones that I found at a Goodwill for $40. They now reside in my bedroom setup atop some HPM-200's. Go for the repair you will not regret it. They will sound great once you get them fixed. New kits usually have the dust caps included so that will solve your unsightly pushed in cap problem. Free is the ultimate score!:thmbsp:

 

[Grayhouse]

Grayhouse,
just look in here too see a big fan of Mach speakers.

I had two Mach Two woofers professionally refoamed over a year ago. Cost around $130. Just got a refoam kit from ebay shipped in for around $30. Spent a late afternoon early evening on one woofer on Friday. Early afternoon on Saturday on the second woofer. By 10 pm Saturday night I was listening to them. The next day Sunday I opened them up some.

Was a very easy job. Much easier than I ever imagined. It looks intimidating but once you jump in you get very confident very quickly. Just remember to take your time have patience and remove as much old foam as possible without damaging the cone. The hardest part about refoaming Mach Two woofers is centering the new foam. It seems to want to settle off center. Just keep working it and you can get it centered. The two speakers on the right side of my pics are the ones I just refoamed last weekend. I have pics and info about Machs posted in the Gallery under speakers. I have owned my 4 Mach Two's since new in 1986. They are my main and most favorite speakers. They sound great! Can handle anything you thro at em'! I also own a pair of Mach Ones that I found at a Goodwill for $40. They now reside in my bedroom setup atop some HPM-200's. Go for the repair you will not regret it. They will sound great once you get them fixed. New kits usually have the dust caps included so that will solve your unsightly pushed in cap problem. Free is the ultimate score!:thmbsp:

Killer set-up you got there mp. If those Mach II's are good enough for those primo SPEC's then I really can't wait to hear 'em. I'm not a total newbie to refoaming. I did my AR-3a's a couple three weeks back. here I was very nervous at first, but I just took my time and found it very satisfying in the end...of course these will be on much larger scale. Thanks for the tip about the centering prob with these. It sounds like I'll be using the shimed method then since I need to pull the dustcaps off anyway. Hopefully that should make it easier. I popped off one of the woofers a little while ago and I was rather impressed with the build quality. Cross brasing and a rather impressive looking x/o as well. A very well thought out design. I was also very surprised considering my little 3a's when standing next to them have to weigh close to twice as much. In other words there not overbuilt, but appear to be built well enough :yes:

 

[Kencat]

I was also very surprised considering my little 3a's when standing next to them have to weigh close to twice as much. In other words there not overbuilt, but appear to be built well enough :yes:

I put the bi-radial tweeters from my 2nd "parts" speakers into the good ones yesterday (they had some other tweets in them). I was a little suprised too. They kind of look under-built actually (?) and no stuffing except for a few sheets around the woofer. The panels are approx 5/8" thick with no corner support or other bracing that I could see from the top tweeter hole anyway. A set of AR48s speakers I picked up are built with at least 3/4" panels and are chocked full of stuffing material.

Maybe some of the "character" of the speaker comes from the way they're built....but, I am pleased, so won't lose any sleep over it. Those bi-radial horn tweeters btw are really nice and have transformed the sound from the non-originals that were in them.

Madpioneer (unreal setup he has,..unreal) made mention of the Machs HT capabilities.....I concur with that ....these guys make incredible low bass when called upon from movies. If there is specialization in HT vs MUSIC speakers, then these MAchs are a darn good dual-purpose design.

On the vc shimming - pics and materials used would be helpful to a first timer foamer :yes:

I'm looking at your equipment list Grayhouse, and the Machs are in some serious company there....I hope they can live up to your audio references...I will be very interested to read what your impressions are.

Now though......wonder what would happen if those sidewalls were seriously stiffened up and lots more stuffing put in...hhmmm

Ken C.

 

[Grayhouse]

I put the bi-radial tweeters from my 2nd "parts" speakers into the good ones yesterday (they had some other tweets in them). I was a little suprised too. They kind of look under-built actually (?) and no stuffing except for a few sheets around the woofer. The panels are approx 5/8" thick with no corner support or other bracing that I could see from the top tweeter hole anyway. A set of AR48s speakers I picked up are built with at least 3/4" panels and are chocked full of stuffing material.

Maybe some of the "character" of the speaker comes from the way they're built....but, I am pleased, so won't lose any sleep over it. Those bi-radial horn tweeters btw are really nice and have transformed the sound from the non-originals that were in them.

Madpioneer (unreal setup he has,..unreal) made mention of the Machs HT capabilities.....I concur with that ....these guys make incredible low bass when called upon from movies. If there is specialization in HT vs MUSIC speakers, then these MAchs are a darn good dual-purpose design.

On the vc shimming - pics and materials used would be helpful to a first timer foamer :yes:

I'm looking at your equipment list Grayhouse, and the Machs are in some serious company there....I hope they can live up to your audio references...I will be very interested to read what your impressions are.

Now though......wonder what would happen if those sidewalls were seriously stiffened up and lots more stuffing put in...hhmmm

Ken C.

I'm pretty pshyced myself to see what they sound like next to my altecs :yes: I allready removed all the old foam. The stuff is pure powder and just crumbled right off the back of the cones with my finger. A little rubbing alcohol and the work to the cones is now completed. I'll wait to remove the gaskets untill I get the new surrounds this way I can fully document the procedure....besides I don't want to get to ahead of myself. I'm not to sure if more stuffing would help Ken, considering the amount of stuffing is what the woofers were tuned for, but I am positive that stiffing up the cabs can only improve resonence to the bottom end. I have some 1x1 birch stock laying around so I just may go ahead and stiffin up the corners, baffle and back when I start cleaning up the finish.

BTW: here's a snap I took of the x/o. Anybody got any idea what those glass doo hickys are? Are they fuses, giant zener diodes, or something else entirely. Most interesting :scratch2:

 

[Kencat]

I'm pretty pshyced myself to see what they sound like next to my altecs :yes: I allready removed all the old foam. The stuff is pure powder and just crumbled right off the back of the cones with my finger. A little rubbing alcohol and the work to the cones is now completed. I'll wait to remove the gaskets untill I get the new surrounds this way I can fully document the procedure....besides I don't want to get to ahead of myself. I'm not to sure if more stuffing would help Ken, considering the amount of stuffing is what the woofers were tuned for, but I am positive that stiffing up the cabs can only improve resonence to the bottom end. I have some 1x1 birch stock laying around so I just may go ahead and stiffin up the corners, baffle and back when I start cleaning up the finish.

BTW: here's a snap I took of the x/o. Anybody got any idea what those glass doo hickys are? Are they fuses, giant zener diodes, or something else entirely. Most interesting :scratch2:

Check out the detailed parts list in the link. for the 40-4032 there is a fuse, but in the 40-4032A list they call it a "lamp" ? Anyway, probably fuses eh? But 12V/27W ???/ does that make any sense ? They do look like a light bulb though with the small-coiled element in it. ACTUALLY, I have no idea what those doo hickys are

http://support.radioshack.com/produ..._id=40-4032&Name=Home Speaker Systems&Reuse=N

I wonder if they are still available if you blow one ? Yikes !

Maybe hold off on the stiffening work till after you hear them in original condition ? as it could make them worse, maybe ?

If you hate them, then you can try the improvements and see if it works.

Just something to think about :scratch2:

Ken C.

 

[Grayhouse]

Check out the detailed parts list in the link. for the 40-4032 there is a fuse, but in the 40-4032A list they call it a "lamp" ? Anyway, probably fuses eh? But 12V/27W ???/ does that make any sense ? They do look like a light bulb though with the small-coiled element in it. ACTUALLY, I have no idea what those doo hickys are

http://support.radioshack.com/produ..._id=40-4032&Name=Home Speaker Systems&Reuse=N

I wonder if they are still available if you blow one ? Yikes !

Maybe hold off on the stiffening work till after you hear them in original condition ? as it could make them worse, maybe ?

If you hate them, then you can try the improvements and see if it works.

Just something to think about :scratch2:

Ken C.

Acording to the "Hints and Tips" section from the link you provided the're exactly that...12v 27watt light bulbs used instead of fuses. One in the tweeter and the other in the mid-range network circuitry...hmmm, rather iluminating. I don't know where one would obtain any if they blew so you best be carefull :worried: Since I have the woofers out I'm gonna power up the speakers and see if they lite. It probally would have been neat if they had put them on the front of the cabs, but then that probally would have looked a little to dare I say....kabuki like :yes:

Don't worry, Ken. I wouldn't plan to do any bracing untill after I gave them a thorough testing to see if they even waranted it.

 

[MarkAnderson]

Those bulbs look like standard automotive interior dome light bulbs. Prolly can find those at any auto-supply house. BTW, this isn't the first reference I've seen to using them as fuses. - Mark