Hello everyone!

I'm Derek and this is my first post to the forum after much reading and such. I in no way consider myself to be "great" haha. That just came from what I named my Warrior in Diablo I all those years ago. Royal warrior should have some sort of fancy name, right? I've always been a JBL fan, never heard of them until I got a set to compliment some Bose 301's I think they were. Dad (I was 16 or 17 at the time) picked up a set of JBL Northridge S26II's for Christmas which were substantially cheaper than the 301's. Well, they sounded substantially better in every way! Bose stuff couldn't handle the 75 watt Kenwood they were hooked up to and sounded muddy unless I was listening at low levels, real good with spoken voice but that's it. Anyway, I dug deeper into JBL history & lore and really became hooked on them after listening but then after learning that most studios back in the day were outfitted with JBL monitors and then I began to pay attention when I went to concerts and saw JBL's everywhere... Later bought a 1988 Lincoln Town Car with the optional Ford-JBL sound system and it is incredible, really advanced for the time if you ask me. Receiver that acted as a preamp and fed a separate big ole honking amplifier in the trunk. Incredible at any volume. The speakers I use in other cars, as to this day they're hard to beat when acquired for the junkyard pickin' price..

Anyway, about a three months ago I seriously started getting into vintage audio gear. My dad had a Marantz 2275 he bought new and kept up until I was about ten. I always loved the look of it and said I'd get one some day. Well, I never expected them to be so expensive or desirable so it took awhile to get to a place where now I can start having fun I listen to mostly rock from the 50's to present. I like stuff that sounds organic and like five people can sit down and make music with minimal equipment. I will listen to highly polished stuff like Steely Dan or the Eagles, those guys are great too. New Kid in Town or Hotel California. Euphoria to my ears. Or Spill the Wine by War. Close eyes. Drift away... Well I wanted to recreate a decent system from back in the day to better enjoy my favorite music and channel my dad somewhat..

Long story short of it is I had a pair of JBL LX44's I had refoamed and then purchased a Marantz 4300 to power them. Well, that sounded really good but I felt the Marantz was over kill for those LX's. So I hopped on Craigslist and began searching for their replacement.. I chose the L150A's over a set of Klipsch Cornwalls. I unfortunately couldn't listen to them so I pushed the woofers in gently at the time and didn't notice any rubbing. Cabinets looked pretty good overall, none of the dust caps were pushed in and the seller claimed a recent refoam job on all the drivers. Score, right? Well, I didn't get them for $20 like all the other threads I've seen though haha.. Anyway, I get them home, hook them to the 4300 and I immediately noticed the woofers made a popping sound at higher volumes, like the voice coil reach maximum excursion or something. I am no way an expert, this experience has been teaching me so much.. Well so I did more reading and come to find out that the L150A's are supposedly power hungry and that many say you really make these things shine when you feed them 200watts or more. Great. I have to spend more money... So I went and bought me a Marantz 3600 Pre-Amp and then a Marantz 510M power amp to match. (Anyone want a minty 4300???) Oh god, they were right! The soundstage was fuller, more articulate and the bass was fuller and richer than before. I let that go for a few days and then tried the test.. Hotel California, right where the drum kicks in in the beginning.. ...Dum-dum-POP! Sadness. Woofers still pop when driven semi hard. I took both woofers out and can't tell if they've been reconed before or not. The back sides are nice and textury as I've seen in other people's photos with white crayon like model numbers on them. Color is a blackish purple. Fronts are white as they should be. Maybe they were painted? I dunno. When I push the woofers out by hand gently, I can feel something rubbing, which must be the popping I hear. So I read if you flip the woofers 180 degrees you might be able to eliminate that popping. Did that. Much better but still there. Then I contacted a well known JBL specialist in the area and went to get her evaluation. She definitely noticed something when they were on the bench. Suggested the previous refoam job wasn't done right and re did the one woofer. Still noticed the pop on both speakers but one does it way sooner than the other. Can't remember which one was done. So I talked with her again yesterday and now we're going to try a full recone but I'm going to lose that trademark white woofer...

Questions boil down to:
1) What do you guys think the problem is and have you encountered this before?? What fixed it or is this normal?
2) Can I paint the woofers white or will this color/change the sound? If you recommend painting, what color/product is the best match?
3) I need to touch up the low gloss black on the front of the cabinets. What product is the best match for touchups?

Thank you so much for reading through my long winded first post! I appreciate all input, feel free to go off topic too.