Some days ago, I bought a pair of used JBL 2447J compression drivers at a well known German selling platform. The seller rated the condition of the drivers as very good but showed only one photo in his sales advertisement:

Offered JBL 2447J

I contacted the seller and asked for more photos to show the condition. However, the seller refused, saying that the drivers were built into his setup and that the drivers would only be removed after the sale. However, he literally assured me that the drivers were in perfect original condition. In retrospect, I’m obviously annoyed with myself for not insisting on taking more photos, but so far I’ve had consistently good experiences. Until now…

So I ended up buying it because I trusted the seller’s information and, above all, because there was no exclusion of liability for material defects in the advertisement. As far as I know, EU law has changed wrt this here in favor of the buyer.

As soon as I unpacked them, I had my first doubts about the “perfect” condition because the felt pad was damaged and, above all, the protective screen at the output of the driver was very dirty. Since the drivers were intended from the start to try out different membranes, I opened the drivers carefully. Replacing a membrane is a completely normal maintenance procedure. I would first describe what awaited me inside as pretty disgusting. But here are the photos:

In my experience, this looks pretty bad. Corrosion on the membranes and in the back chamber. I think the corrosion inside the phase plug is even worse. It is completely unclear whether the delicate channels could ever be entirely cleaned again. But in particular, as a buyer, I don’t see the effort in terms of time and materials as acceptable when drivers are sold to me in perfect condition.

I would be interested in your opinion on this matter. In particular, I am also very interested in how these dirty or corroded drivers can possibly be saved, i.e., safely cleaned. I am grateful for the constructive feedback and any help in this regard. You can contact me via my email address, which can be found here on my “Impressum” page. Maybe I will write an update with the best suggestions.