The 3 spider cutting failures that I am aware of can be traced to over excursion at very high power levels in large boxes or from playing well below tuning at more then rated power levels. It is a little difficult to trace some of the root cause because in a couple of cases the subs were used by someone else before being acquired by the person having the failure and the past use cannot be determined.
I don't like failures of any kind even when the sub is pushed far beyond its ratings but it is impossible to prevent every possible failure even though we overbuild our subs in every possible way we can. The number of failures, 3 or 4, is minute in regard to numbers in service and all of those can be traced to improper use.
Never the less I am concerned about ANY failure mode under ANY circumstance even when the sub is pushed well beyond its rated performance levels. The HDC3 has a much stronger motor, suspension, cone and is capable of more excursion then the original HD3 sub; that's why it is louder then the HD3. It also has a better cooling system. It has a better durability record then the HD3 regardless of what Alex or some others think of the Chinese.
We are, howerver, addressing the issue and are now adding an additional procedure to the sub during final assembly at our build facility in Oklahoma City. We can't prevent every failure or protect every enduser from themselves but we do listen to our customers and do everything we can to improve our products.
