Wayne Parham Messages: 18786 Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
The problem is - if you think about it - it's a loaded question. Consider the question, "What product(s) can we apply to change the color of the cone without changing its characteristics?" We would be asking the manufacturer to recommend a modification that they cannot control.
The best they could do would be to offer a qualified "maybe," and I doubt they would even do that. Their response would probably be something more like "that will violate the warranty and may adversely affect performance." I would be fairly uncomfortable even asking them.
I do know a JBL tech that sometimes suggests (fairly trivial) modifications - where appropriate to solve a particular problem - saying they do not affect the sound. They're things like removing protective meshes, decorative gaskets and magnet covers and other things like that. The most "invasive" one that actually works without ill-effects is a dust cap change.
I can confirm that this one specific third-party dust cap can be used as a replacement for the cap in the genuine JBL 2226 recone kit. It does not adversely affect performance - I've measured it. But I haven't found any other mods or aftermarket parts that I trust, and I've seen several.
So in most cases, I do not recommend mods or third-party parts. I've seen too many response charts from drivers with third-party cones that looked horrible. Nasty jagged response or nose-dive above 600Hz. But that one particular case - the substitute dust cap - doesn't cause any harm.
I would expect that JBL engineers would not condone the third-party dust cap replacement though. They would not trust that the non-JBL dust cap would act the same as the one they provide. They would rightly suggest staying with genuine JBL parts to maintain the performance and integrity of their design.
Likewise, I wouldn't expect JBL to condone any sort of doping be applied to the cone. That's pretty likely to change its characteristics. The materials used - and their consistency and thickness of application - would almost certainly be factors, and what we're considering here is something done in the field by some sort of hand-applied process. So I think probably this isn't something we can expect the manufacturer to advise.
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