Well actually I believe that IC2 needs a major machine overhaul. I suggested this a long time before to alblaka but the problem is time.
Basically you could do it like that:
Build Macerator-Chassis, the chassis has 4 Upgrade-Slots, one for the actual grinder and 3 for additional upgrades, also the macerator should need water to cool it or a coolant-cell that is used up over time. The cheapest grinder is made of flint, but will lose durability quite fast and can't macerate lot's of stuff, so it is basically more used for making sand from cobblestone, coal-dust from coal or macerate other relativly weak materials (like wood... well IC2 does not have sawdust^^). The benefit is that it uses only few EU per operation.
Next could be a carbon grinder or advanced alloy or whatever (I'm not really sure what would make sense^^, since IC2 does not have tungsten for a tungsten-carbide grinder^^). It would be the normal macerator but would still lose durability, there might be some stuff you still can't macerate (obsidian or diamond or other gems, but there are no recipies for this anyway, it would only be a problem with gregs). The stronger grinder also increases the energy-requirement for the macerator.
The last ultimate grinder would be diamond... it lasts literally forever (well you might need to replace it at some point but it will pay for it). It can macerate everything but will take double durability-hits from macerating certain stuff like diamonds or other gems etc.
To get rid of duriability you can upgrade this to the iridium-grinder. Well Iridium isn't that hard but it is the ultimate material in IC2 anyway.
The other upgrade-slots should not be used for trivial things like overclockers... overclockers are boring. Modules could be:
-automated material output (like TE)
-seperator (makes it possible to macerate two materials at the same time)
-a motor-upgrade (basically this is the overclocker)
-heat dispenser (eliminates the need of a coolant, but slows down the machine)
-input-storage (a 9-slot inventory that refills the macerator)
-an upgrade to reduce dura-loss of the grinders
-fortune-upgrade (a magical upgrade that creates a chance of 5% to double the output but needs a Fortune-Diamond-Pick)
...
Also the compressor should change. It should actually work with pressure and if you improve it, the pressure increases and every compressor-recipe has a certain amount of pressure it requires. So compressing plant-balls or sand to sandstone is very easy. But to create diamonds out of coal you need a very strong engine to create enough pressure. Oh and the compressor would definitly need an upgrade for explosive compression
as long as you feed it TNT or other explosives (nukes are not recommended) it will compress instantly.
There are a lot of things you can do to make things more interesting for players. But at the state IC2 is now it provides not much progress to players. Upgrading the macerator would be something that is worth it and you had to put some work into it, but if you are ready it would be like "yeah I can double my ores". TE actually has the same problem. You can build almost all the machines after you first mining-trip since they are incredible cheap.