It is possible that it might have been your tone that set people off?
As an idea I’ll add “a #4” to my previous list of 3 finite possibilities:
1: Speaker driver:
What I would suggest is to get a Parts Express DATS. Remove the driver from the speaker that works. Then once you have measured its T/S parameters, you can find a good candidate for a replacement.
Whether what matches best is that JBL, a ScanSpeak wu18, or something else like a Peerless or Seas, is unknown… but at least it would be a way to select a driver that does its best to work with the existing crossover.
2: Crossover:
You could move the crossover left to right to determine whether, in fact, it sounds the same in the existing good speaker.
MY speakers were $800 plus $400 for shipping. That isn’t as good as one guy who paid $175 but better than the eBay guy who wants $3000. It was Sir Vandicream that was the one who said I paid too much for my speakers so he himself does not value them at $800. Why the heck should I fork-out $400 to $500 to send them to the Vandersteen Factory (including 2 way shipping? Is it not my choice?
I think your post over there may have been interpreted as you spent the $3000 and $1000 in shipping… which was at least how I had read it. Maybe other’s did not come to a similar conclusion.., “I dunno”.
BSPKE is a nice man. He offered good advice and was a gentleman.
Agreed… and I’ll strive to try to be more like @bkeske and Gentleman Jim @tomic601 .
Best of luck with the effort.