Hello raindance,I am a big camel fan as well
My sister in law has a pair that she brought in 90 around 2 years ago the surrounds deteriorated so I jumped in to fix them ,the first set of surrounds that I put on had exactly what you are commenting about the bass ,I have heard the speakers over a hundred times in her home and I to was surprised,so I took them home and did a lot of homework and research with a lot or reconers and including the Norwegian snell group,the driver was popular in a lot of U.K. And Danish speakers
Apparently the surrounds were too thick and the inner connecting part was not curved inward enough,this probably raised the cone a bit and the thickness of the surrounds,I think this affects the xmax and overall weight
I finally got some surrounds from audio friends in the Netherlands,apparently audionote also supplies the surrounds from the U.K.
Also when inspecting the drivers pay attention to the glue on the back of the cone as some folks do not glue this part also causing the driver less ridigity,
Please don't take this the wrong way ,for $25 it's the best investment you can make for an amazing sounding speaker,I now have them in my sunroom and my wife enjoys them ,I occasionally use them to test some of the amps I build or refurbish,right now I have them on some altec 1569 tube mono blocks
Yes the stuffing is as you describe,I to found it strange,but hey it works,I will try the 1.2 ohm resistor idea,I have my pots on some vintage German wire would things and that opened up the speaker.
Mine have the kimber cable in them,
They are really a fantastic bargain
Hope this helps
Now rebuilding some Frazier black box and a pair of bozak Ls 200