BigT
03-19-2008, 09:38 AM
I won this Ebay auction : http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=120232221864&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=002 for a pair of 2245h woofers. They've arrived, packed fairly well, but not quite in the condition I thought they were in. From the photos in the auction they appeared to be in fine shape but when they got here, part of each woofers surround had split. The photos show that the surrounds were intact and when I brought up the photos in Photoshop and enlarged them, they also appeared intact. But now they're split. I thought initially that as the seller had four to sell, he had sent me the wrong ones. However, one of the photos shows a serial number that corresponds to one of the woofers so I must assume that mine are the ones pictured and that the surrounds had split during shipping. Is this common? I don't particularly like foam as it disintegrates over time so maybe it was just the stress of shipping older drivers that caused the splits and the woofers were due for a refoam anyway? Or perhaps it was how I had the seller pack them. I recently received a pair of 2123h midranges drivers where the seller had cable-tied them face to face. I thought, what a neat way to pack drivers - no way could they slam into each other during transport. I asked (but didn't demand) the seller to do the same thing and he did. I believed this was a good way to protect the foam surrounds. The woofers were solidly bolted together, no play at all, yet the foam surrounds split.
Anyway, no big deal, it just turns a decent deal into an average deal. I could get replacements and refoam them myself but as I've never done this before, I'm having a local JBL authorized speaker shop repair them. The seller has reinbursed me for the cost of the foam surrounds, but not the labor. A decent compormise. I'm hoping that they won't need reconing also, which I won't have done - too dang expensive.
I must say that owning several 15" woofers didn't prepare me for the size of an 18 incher! A mere 3" added to the diameter makes for one overwhelming-looking woofer. I once considered a 21 incher for my subwoofer but I barely have room for these - no need to go larger.
Anyway, no big deal, it just turns a decent deal into an average deal. I could get replacements and refoam them myself but as I've never done this before, I'm having a local JBL authorized speaker shop repair them. The seller has reinbursed me for the cost of the foam surrounds, but not the labor. A decent compormise. I'm hoping that they won't need reconing also, which I won't have done - too dang expensive.
I must say that owning several 15" woofers didn't prepare me for the size of an 18 incher! A mere 3" added to the diameter makes for one overwhelming-looking woofer. I once considered a 21 incher for my subwoofer but I barely have room for these - no need to go larger.