The Tandy MMS-10 is a self contained speaker unit that sits under a monitor, providing external speakers for vintage computers. Radio Shack sold them for use with 1990s multimedia PCs. But the MMS-10 looks and works well with an Amiga computer too. And who would blame you for using one with a Tandy 1000?
Tandy MMS-10 overview
The Tandy MMS-10 is pretty sought after today because of the name recognition. The unit looks nicer than the more common speakers that sit off to the side. And sitting under the monitor saves some space.
Tandy released the MMS-10 in 1993 at a retail price of $79.99. Production (or at least sales) continued into 1994 even after Tandy stopped making its own computers. So the MMS-10 is really a bit too new for an Amiga or Tandy 1000 setup. It’s a generation newer than the Tandy 1000, and it only caught the last two years of the Amiga’s product life. But the styling still works. Computer styling evolved slowly, so the Tandy MMS-10 looks the part even with computers that are a generation or so ahead or behind it.
Dimensions and other specifications
The Tandy MMS-10 was approximately 11×11 inches square and stood 3.5 inches tall. Its speakers are rated at 22 watts at 4 ohms, with 11 watts per channel. The speakers are shielded so they wouldn’t harm your floppy disks, which was a concern at the time.
The unit has 2-inch speakers and an integrated 5-inch woofer. This gives it a bit more punch than a typical $20 set of Labtec speakers from the time did, but don’t expect to rattle your windows with it.
It has more knobs than a $20 speaker set too, with the usual volume and balance controls, but it also has a tone control and a mixer. The tone control adjusts the treble level.
The mixer lets you mix between two inputs. This would make it an interesting peripheral for a later Tandy PC that had built in Tandy sound and an additional sound card. You could hook both up and use the mixer control to mute one or the other if you needed. You could also use it in Gravis Ultrasound setups in much the same way.
Sound inputs come in through RCA connectors in the back. There are also wire terminal connections for external speakers, along with a switch to let you choose between the internal and external speakers or use all of them. But if you use both, you disable the woofer and the tone control.
Sometimes people will desolder the speakers and replace them with newer, better units that fit to upgrade the sound, or to restore a unit that no longer works. If you can’t get shielded speakers, be careful about using it with computers still equipped with floppy disks.
Tandy MMS-10 variants
Tandy also sold two other models that extended the capabilities of the MMS-10. The Tandy MMS-11 had an equalizer. The even more souped up Tandy MMS-20 had a 5-band equalizer, which was also rated at 22 watts.
The MMS-20’s catalog number was 25-1109.
Troubleshooting
There’s only one major problem that happens with the Tandy MMS-10 and it’s pretty easy to fix. Some people love the MMS-10 and others swear it sounds worse than the speakers bundled with sound cards did. Then someone mentions the sliding switch on the back and suggests switching it to internal. That enables the tone control and the woofer and makes it sound better than the cheap speakers of the time.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.