That is 100% a manufacturing defect if that separates in 5 minutes or 5 years regardless of what you're doing with it. I've personally only had that sort of failure on subs I've built with old/expired glue. When built correctly with fresh glue that should require a chisel to get apart and then an angle grinder to clean the glue off the landing. Notice that when Sundown had the first gen X subs fail at the surround to frame joint they just sorted their **** out with their build house in China and made good on replacing all the defective subs that failed.
Again, words words words and no data. None of what you posted is doing anything to further anybody's understanding of this topic, you're only helping perpetuate industry myths and snake oil.
It pretty well jumped the shark when you implied you can hear the difference in how loud something is today over what it was a couple months ago.
But not too busy to reply to this thread 30 times, just too busy to reply with any data to back up your claims.
Like I say, I didn't carry around a camera during my entire time having these experiences.
Sub defects happen. I've seen it a lot. My thought is that if you could break in a sub, and use it, when it would break itself if it didn't do that, then that would save people money. That's really the only reason I would say that.
No it's not. It's not jumping the shark. I don't get how you don't understand this:
I've played subs. New subs. I've had new subs and so have systems I've worked on, and I know or knew the owners <- that's easy to understand.
I've had subs, and others have had subs, that I've either built a box for, installed, tuned, where I've been a part of the install, in some fashion. <- easy to understand
My ears, and many of the ears that I was working with, or helping work on their systems, we have all heard subwoofers not be able to play certain notes away from tuning frequency, when a sub is brand new. Right? That easy to understand. <-brand new subs, noticed playable bandwidth when the sub was freshly installed in vehicle in box, with zero play time.
Test tones, we know exactly what frequencies the subs is playing. Some subs, after playing for a while, will extend their bandwidth of playable notes. I've tested this with test tones. I don't need a meter to know when a sub is actually playing a note or not. You can watch the vehicle flex, you can clearly hear when a subwoofer is struggling to play a note. With some subwoofers, especially higher powered woofers, I have seen these woofers be able to play further and further away from Fs and box tuning with more play time. That's scientific, because I tested it with test tones.
For example: you have say a single 15 in a trunk tuned to 32 hz. That 15, when it was new, would move some playing 28 hz, but wasn't grabbing the note, it was not playing the note with any authority. After playing music on this subwoofer over a period of time, the subwoofer was able to play 28 hz with great authority (depends on specifics of each system), seemingly because the spider had loosened up. That makes sense logically, because low notes extend in one direction longer, due to the longer wavelength and the duration of the push of the cone, due to the polarity staying either positive or negative for longer than it would with say a 60 hz note. Wavelength gets exponentially longer as you go down in frequency, which means your sub tries to push the cone out for an exponentially longer time with the lower and lower you play.
Super stiff spiders impede, sometimes, a woofer's ability to reproduce low notes, away from tuning frequency, because the motor structure and coil setup and power levels aren't great enough to properly push through the stiffness of the suspension, if the woofer is brand new (or a bad design like my proto CT Sounds 18's that I was given).
This doesn't always happen, and if it does, it's usually it's very very mild, unnoticeable. ONLY IN SOME FEW CASES have I had issues with higher power woofers not playing their full expected bandwidth, until they broke in a little. ONCE AGAIN, I REPEAT, THIS ISN'T SUPER COMMON, AND IT'S USUALLY AN ISSUE WITH SYSTEMS INHERENTLY DESIGNED TO REPRODUCE LOW FREQUENCIES, LOWER THAN MOST WOULD CONSIDER DAILY. Since I do design for people like this, we always keep in mind sub stiffness, just in case, so that way we don't try to play way below the subs Fs too early.
Mostly I have seen this cause heat issues, where the sub needs to break in a little before you play lows super hard, because the coil isn't cooling itself super well, due to limited cone travel, due to spider stiffness, with high powered woofers playing low notes. It's just something you have to watch for. You have to be in tune with your system, and know what it's doing, and spot any issues.
My answer still is: if you have a question about breaking in a woofer, it's not going to hurt to do it. The whole point of this is for people to learn how to handle their systems themselves, and come to their own determinations that make sense to them. You may not need it, and that's fine if you don't. I haven't needed it in a lot of situations. There are some situations where I absolutely have made sure a woofer isn't too stiff, before I or someone I work with gives the woofer full power (or well over full power), because of the types of boxes some of these woofers are in, and how the boxes are tuned, power levels, and what they're being used for. The type of box a woofer is in obviously greatly affects the way it plays. So, with really big power and big systems, we just like to make sure we don't hurt the woofers. That's all it is. I designed for people who are trying to play below 20 hz sometimes.
It's so much fun, and f*ck you if you don't like it and then complain to me that you don't like it. It's not your decision to make; it's my decision and the decision of the owners. This is my life and I do what I want, and I'll design whatever people want me to, because it's super fun not to be a close minded audio person. So, if you're playing super duper low, you might consider watching your subs when you first play them, and make sure they're moving well, before giving it tons of power. A lot of my designs with super low bass are being ran waayyyy over rated power, for SPL reasons. We just like to make sure everything goes ok. Taking it slow with new woofers and new systems isn't bad advice lol, not bad advice at all, and that's probably part of the mind state behind breaking woofers in.
Do whatever you'd like to with your subs and system. I hope all goes well with your bass, please share your experiences on here, so that others can learn from you, to empower their own audio knowledge. May the Bass Gods bless you with broken cart parts!