Matchless speakers

[ninjadave7]

This is an old question for people, I know, but a forum search didn't return any results, so I thought I'd ask. Does anyone know or have any idea what it is Matchless does to their speakers that is "proprietary"? Apparently they sound better than anything else so I'm curious.

thanks!

[Chuck H]

Since no one is chiming in... I don't know what Matchless does but there's only a couple of things it could be. If you know what these tonal differences are (brighter, looser, warmer, etc.) you may be able to narrow it down. Or better yet, experiment for yourself and discover what sounds best to you.

Add dope to the surround: Reduces "cone cry" at the expense of harmonic fidelity. Speaker is tighter but less complex sounding

Break in: Run the speaker at a controled AC long enough to "break in" the speaker. Usually this makes the speaker warmer and looser on the bottom end. More mids are percieved most of the time.

Stiffen the cone: material is applied to the cone either at a specific point in the circumference (near center or near edge) possibly at a specific width OR applied to the entire cone. This makes the speaker brighter generally. Whether stiffening certain regions has a more complex effect I can't say.

Chemically soften the cone: Similar to the beak in effect. One difference is that the additional texture to the paper cone surface can create complex phase effects that may supress certain frequencies. I doubt anyone can say how to do this well except to say that whatever you do to acieve this wouid need to be exactly duplicated to achieve specific results.

I'm going to bet that it's nothing more than an artificial break in and/or a light dope on the surround.

[cminor9]

Don't forget that they helped make mixing two speakers popular. I have heard (albeit on internet forums, like here: Matchless v. Vox AC30 and the like. [Archive] - The Gear Page for example) that their 2 speaker cabs sound an awful lot like a greenback and a v30. It's no coincidence this is also the combination that comes with Dr Z's Z Best cab.

They probably have Celestion print special labels and slap em on the magnets of standard issue speakers. Sometimes tone hounds are a dim lot and go for that sort of thing.

I have a cab with a similar setup and it absolutely kills. Best speaker combination I have ever heard.

[J M Fahey]

You are right.
I remember an old Guitar Player article where somebody visited Matchless, in the early days, and he saw them open V30 and Greenback boxes and, use "acetone soaked cloth" both to soften and unglue labels and to wipe out edge doping.
Don't think the "doping removal"accomplishes much, if any, but the combination is killer indeed.
GP was amazed in a combo shootout where they plugged every one in a regular 1960 cabinet (4 x G1275?).
*All* combos fared better there, except the 2x12"Matchless which "did sound as good as, if not better"