The Amp Garage

I'm looking to do a JBL2235H recone for a customer who has 4430 monitors. The kits I'm seeing online, like at simplyspeakers.com appear to be dark gray but the cone in this original speaker is definitely a more brown tint. Is this an age thing or are the materials different? I've also asked the simply speakers folks and am waiting for a response. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but this is for a hifi system without grills. It might look odd, or worse, sound way different if not the same. Has anyone else experienced significant color changes over time like this?

It could be a difference in color due to age. Black speaker cones can get bleached by sunlight which can change the color.

What do the cones look like on the back? That should reveal the original color...

TT

I thought that too but the back of the cones are the exact same lighter color. Simply Speakers says age can do it too but did not state any specific environmental reasons. They did say some customers can't deal with it and recone in pairs. I can understand why if this is the centerpiece of your living room.

Perhaps it is not just sunlight that changes the color but I'm kind of thinking these were a bit different to begin with....

Those are pretty old speakers. Perhaps they were recommend at some point in their life with non-original cones?

Possibly but it was a quality recone if so, very clean. The foam surround is still solid on it. I've suggested if he wants the two speakers to look AND sound the same, he should probably redo both.

Here is a picture. The more I look at it, the more I think this is not a standard paper cone. Is this a hemp cone perhaps?

The more I think about, and I might be mixing up model numbers in my aging mind, but I think the original woofers may have had white cones. I know the L100's were white, and if I'm not mistaken, the L100's were the consumer version of the 4430's

EDIT: My apologies. I should have consulted google first. It turns out the L100 was the consumer version of the 4311.

I see healthy looking foam edges which means they can´t be more than 10 years old, maybe 20 years tops if they were unused inside the original cardboard box , obviously away from the sun and in a mild temperature and humidity place.

Foam rots and in general is way more damaged by sunlight/UV than cone pigments.

My point is that if those cones are not deep black but somewhat brownish or greyish, they were so from the beginning.

Which does not mean anything is wrong with them, "natural" paper colour is light brown as in untreated Kraft paper, for the very good reason that it´s basically the same; black colour is popular because black pigments (think of carbon black/chimney soot) are both light and intense (like anybody who touches carbon black or even Laser toner quickly realizes) so very little is used so it affects sound properties the least.

While say, white pigment, is basically some ground mineral, and it adds weight; you´ll see some white woofers, not quite recommended anywhere else.