I think just about any driver will fit into a 2000S without modifications. It's not like the 200S cabs, it's much "roomier" inside. I've loaded EVM15 EVSRO 15" drivers with the big finned magnet covers on them and they dropped right in, so I don't imagine that you would have a problem with any Eminence drivers.
I can't help you with firsthand experience about Eminence in 2000S cabs, though. I've got a lot of hand on experience with Eminence drivers in modern cabs, and SR cabs, and I think very highly of Eminence as a great value in new production driver. And, as far as I’m concerned they are totally deserving of their prominence in the OEM and replacement driver fields.
But… IMO the Sunn Amp/Sunn Cab/AlNiCo JBL combination is tonally magical, and keeping the rigs "vintage correct" is one of my priorities with my personal old Sunn gear.
Here are some of my reasons;
It's difficult to emulate the transducer technology that is commiserate with a 2000S head using current production drivers; things have changed a bit with the concept of bass guitar amplification in the last 40 years. Think about the power output of the average bass rig, in the late 60's a 100 watt amp was monstrous. When the $2000, 120 watt 2000S rig was introduced it was considered stupid powerful, the '69 SVT was almost cartoonish-ly "over the top" rated at 300 watts.
Compare that to today; big power is dirt cheap. Today you can walk into Guitar Center and buy a Behringer that has as much power as a 2000S and a SVT [/i]combined[/i] for $250 (not to even mention in 2011 dollars vs 1969 dollars) brand new. 1000 watt bass rigs are fairly common; my personal transistor gig rig is 1500 watts, and that kind of power wasn’t even conceived of 40 years ago. Modern bass amplification requires big power woofers.
Here’s my point; the transducer technology that produced those sweet toned, low powered, woofers doesn’t really exist anymore. There is no current production replacement driver for a D/K 140, an Altec 421, a Goodmans, etc.
Guitar players, which constitute by far the majority of MI gear, have vintage replacement options; they can still get a nice new quality AlNiCo driver. Bass players can’t really utilize these because even the few 15” drivers available have an xmax <1 mm, sometimes <.5 mm so won’t move any air, and the big excursion woofers available currently are rated at 400+ watts and I don’t care what “sensitivity” they may be rated at, if a woofer can handle 500 watt RMS it’s going to be a freekin’ slug with a 120 watt amp driving it. You can find cheap stamped frame woofers that move a little, but the top shelf musical tone quality, ultra high efficiency 15” driver for bass guitar has pretty much gone the way of the Dodo bird.
This is not to say that modern drivers don’t sound good; they do. They just don’t have that “musical” tonal quality of the dinosaurs, and never will. The market for those old school drivers is so insignificant that it doesn’t make fiscal sense for anyone to produce them.
I’ve spent literally hours upon hours A/B’ing pretty much every current high end 15” woofer side by side with D and K140 drivers in various Thiele designed, Sunn designed, Trace Elliot designed, Orange designed, etc. cabs when I participated in the testing for the Reeves 115 cab. Back and forth like an eye examination (do your prefer this… or this? This… or this?) with someone switching cabs while I played the same licks over and over and over. Some of the new drivers sounded very good indeed, and all of them could take the big Reeves wide open without farting, while the amp could have literally shredded the JBL’s at will.
However, none of the new drivers had that musical magic of the AlNiCo JBLs at moderate volume, and as far as sheer SPL, clean the JBL hung with the big boys; albeit at much lower power output levels. That “efficiency” thing again…
It’s also not just my observation. Not only were we in a studio using test equipment, there were other well known players involved whom I’m not really at liberty to name, suffice to say that I was almost too intimidated to play in front of them. I got to come along pretty much because of my access to mint vintage drivers to use for comparison. The point is, everyone was in agreement that the old drivers were tonally superior, the D140F the absolute winner, even though if a true D140F clone were available it wouldn’t have been used in the production Reeves 115 because of its low power handling.
So, to wind up another long winded Ed post…
If you are looking for a modern driver to emulate the tone of a 2000S rig in all its glory; I would say to bite the bullet and get some K140’s. I’ve run a two cab 2000S rig loaded with them at deafening volume with zero farting, I’ve also got a two cab D140F loaded 2000S rig but wide open you can detect a touch of bottoming out, albeit at levels that most venues wouldn’t allow anyway. The D’s are a little sweeter IMO, but the K’s sound magnificent and take about twice the power. I’ve also run Altec, EVM’s, EVSRO’s and CTS 15’s in gig settings in 2000S rigs, and while none sound bad, none have the same magic as the JBL’s.
If you don’t care to emulate the tone of yesteryear, and just want a good sounding 2000s rig there are lots of choices. My suggestions for modern drivers would be in the $200-$300 range, but it seems by your post that you want to stay significantly under that price point.
As I said I can’t speak to Eminence specifically, but I’m sure they will do just fine, also they will likely be the most reasonable $$. Call them and ask, they are very user friendly, just tell them what you want to do what you want to spend, and they will steer you in the right direction.
Eminence didn’t get the call to develop the Reeves bass driver (they do however custom manufacture the Reeves “Vintage Purple” guitar driver and about a million other OEM drivers), but as I inferred above, IMO they are a first rate outfit all in all.
One more plug for “old school”. “New” drivers have unquestionable benefits as far as practicality, cost and maintenance. However… Although nice K140’s will cost $200-$300, they will still be worth that down the road. As they get scarcer, history would dictate that they will actually increase in value.
The same can’t be said for modern drivers.
