I’ve restored many JBL speakers over the years. I’ve always used a guy here in Utah that’s been working on JBL drivers for 40 years. He’s taken woofers that looked like a lost cause and brought them back to “museum” grade. He’s an artist. All of the JBL woofers that he’s done always has the proper surround glued to the rear of the cone.

im seeing a bunch of JBL raw speakers and mounted in cabinets that appear to have the foam surrounds glued to the front of the cone. I would think this would be done to try and hide damage done from trying to clean off the old foam. Some of the work is really shoddy. I’ve bought many 708g-1 woofers that had been butchered, then my guy fixes them.

Is the foam attachment location a factor for proper woofer operation? It’s really upsetting to see a fine speaker hacked by a “I think I can do it” owner.