Any mach one users out there?

[greymalkin]

hello,

i have taken it upon myself to upgrade my in-laws home theater setup...they are currently running the realistic mach one's as their FL/FR speakers and have the bose surround speaker package for the rest. The first thing I decided to change was the surround receiver..they have an older prologic receiver that powers the bose speakers just fine but the poor mach ones are starving...so heres my problem..i have a 5.1 receiver with supposedly discrete 110w x 5 output...i'm wondering if this will do the trick for the mach ones assuming i have the "good" ones.

which leads me to my second question..how do i know if i have the "good" version of the mach ones? I've browsed them before but I don't recall any distinguishing marks..i don't believe they are the liquid cooled versions...and if they are the good ones then are they 8ohm speakers? I saw some specs on the mach ones that said they are 6ohm which concerns me when connecting to an 8ohm receiver....anyways..i'm really confused about them right now...

the amp i bought does have pre-amp outputs so if it comes down to it i can get a seperate 2 channel amp to drive the speakers properly. my in-laws actually still have the original stereo that pushed them properly but it needs to be repaired.....anyways..if anyone has any advice on any of the many topics i brought up please let me know!

i'm planning on using the mach ones as the FL/FR & also for all the low end as well in the place of a dedicated SW.
thanks

[jamison]

to tell if you have the good ones look at the Level pad adjusters/ horn tweeter. if there is ten screws on it you have the good ones if it has 6 you have the second version of the mach one. i believe they came out with the good ones only in 1977 then they had someone else make them and they cheaped out. the good ones have rubber surrounds on the woofers and the bad ones have the foam surrounds which rot after time.

[jocko_nc]

SWEET! I always wanted a pair of those. Imagine, I time when Radio Shack actually sold something you wanted to buy!

When I was 13 I bought a pair of the then top-of-the-line Realistic towers. 3-ways with a 10 inch woofer and 10 inch radiator. I believe the drivers were Peerless, those things were great in their day. A lot of money I had to save... Ahh yes...

jocko

[greymalkin]

thanks for the reply..i'll go over there this weekend and check it out. if they are the good ones do you think 110W will be good enough to push them? They are in a living room but it's not very large and they have wood floors which helps the sound resonate.

[greymalkin]

also...if i does turn out that i have the "good" ones..does anyone know the actual spec's on these speakers...someone earlier said they are 8 ohm which is good...but what is the power requirements? i've heard 100wRMS, 160w, 200+W...

i'm trying to set up my in-laws with the best surround setup possible and i'm wondering if i should depend on the 110wpc going to the left and right to produce the full range or if I should go ahead and hookup a smaller sub and let the lower frequencies be sent to it..it won't rumble like the 15"s would..but i'm not sure how they would do anyways with 110W going to them...

[jamison]

they are rated at 160 watts per channel RMS, id feed em at least 100 as long as its quality wattts via a good power supply, ive run them with a 300 watt per channel adcom amp and i never had any problems. the power supply feeding the amp is more important than watts.

[cjpremierfour]

I had a pair in the past and I believe the 8 ohm, 160 watt rating is correct. My pair did not have a solid bottom end, they were a bit weak for a speaker that went down to 25 hzs. I was using an Onkyo M 508 back then and I remember them being pretty efficient with a lot of mid-range energy. The Mach 1's just didn't have low bass, it sounded like the F3 was in the 45's. I was told by my brother that back then speaker were designed to go right up against the wall, something that I never tried, you may want to try this before you look into a subwoofer. The 100 watt receiver should be plenty for the mach 1's.

[greymalkin]

i know placement will make a difference with the bass response...they are actually built into cabinets in the entertainment center so they are in an enclosed space pretty close to the wall(just enough room between the back and wall for the speaker wire connections).

I already have a 8" powered sub but I know it won't come close to properly powered 15"s :)

The receiver actually has pre-amp outputs so if they ever wanted to they could get the original amp that came with the speakers fixed and rock the house again. My mother in law did say they never sounded as good as when they were connected to the original amp.

[greymalkin]

well i am happy to announce that my in-laws have the good version of the mach ones! I checked them out this weekend. One of them has a "dimple" in the middle where it looks like it was bumped and caved in. Not sure how this will effect the sound. But my father in law hooked them up with some cheap phone wire! I'll be sure and re-wire them with some 24-16ga. when we hook it up. The surrounds were connected using good speaker wire.

[Cu-Melter]

model 4029 used foam surrounds. Woofer Impedance was 6 ohm....
Still used double brass coils....
I have 4029 and 4032/a and wouldn't trade them for anything.
IMHO, the 4032 is a more musical speaker...4024-29 is more of a rocker's speaker.

Mach Two lower end is alot more detailed and refined than Mach One.
And the Mach Two Bi-lateral tweeter definitely separates the Mach series.