JBL 123a in black???

[Copa1934]

I came across this listing which shows L100's with black woofers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120672366994&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

A few months ago I bought some JBL drivers, supposedly from an L100. They had been re-listed a couple times which made me suspicious as the woofers were black, but they had the correct frame, JBL red dots and the correct cone number (stamped on the back). They were, however, missing the foils.

Now comes along this listing with black cones. I suspect they were painted? The black on mine appears to be flaking off, very small amounts, but clearly the cones are white underneath.

Did JBL off this, or did owners choose to paint them black? I've heard of people refer to the white cones as panzy and preferred black so it wouldn't surprise me if this wasn't an uncommon practice, if not factory doen.

 

[borus]

Copa
My JBL woofers 128Hs have been painted black as well. They also have had their surrounds replaced I got them that way. They test well and still sound great. Some strange macho thing I guess.
Borus

 

[GordonW]

Black-cone 123A woofers were used in the earliest JBL L88 speakers. However, IIRC, by the time the L100 came out, all 123A woofers were white-cone.

The factory black-cone 123As are identical in performance to the later white-cone 123As.

Regards,
Gordon.

 

[Copa1934]

Black-cone 123A woofers were used in the earliest JBL L88 speakers. However, IIRC, by the time the L100 came out, all 123A woofers were white-cone.

The factory black-cone 123As are identical in performance to the later white-cone 123As.

Regards,
Gordon.

I recently read some articles and posts referring to this woofer and the fact that it had quite a frequency range and that a couple of the monitors they were used in had them wired straight up, no caps, coils, etc? If this is actually true, would this speaker work well as a econo or 1/4 wave, with the aid of a tweeter designed for a wave system?

I can't help but wonder if the same is true for the 122a, which has an even lower Fs than the 123a. I have both drivers and I also have L88's with white cones (later models I guess), which I also happen to like.