Well, first, I don't actually know the numbers to expect. The first suggestion about number and date is probably correct.
WVbass we need the date of you speaker as per the serial.... so we can start making sense of this. maybe you posted it but if so I missed it.
The theory is that at some point the cones changed, possibly due to the other manufacturer going out of business, or dropping that part number, etc.
Paper cones for speakers are funny things, stupid little insignificant changes make bigger differences.... and the 'same" cone from a different maker will have slightly different pulp, pulp processing, pulp stirring, pickup molds, drying, thickness tolerances, treatments, etc. All basically that same thing as saying it is NOT the same thing.
If cones changed, then we will start to see a difference in marking as of some date. Then one of us who still has some "pull" with Eminence may have to ask some questions.
Maybe we can confirm Jimmy's suspicions.
I tend to believe him when he says he hears a difference. It might be speaker drivers, or it might be something else. But he hears it, and he sounds like a guy who has played a bunch of different stuff, played all sorts enough to notice patterns.
I've known a guy who could pick up and play a guitar blindfolded and correctly name the woods used and the type of joints used in the body. He just had been playing forever, was a GREAT player, and had used a LOT of different guitars.
