Can an air leak damage a speaker

[HaloZero]

Long story short I have a custom setup for my MINI. It uses a 10" from SB Acoustics, don't have the model number because the customizer has their own model number for it. I've blown 2 subs. It's powered by an arc audio amp and have been the only one blowing subs. I'm not exactly sure what he said the first speakers problem was but was internal so it was 'defective' and replaced with no issues. The second time is now, the spider is ripped through and not working of course. The customizer has been a great help and came up with the idea that a big enough leak could cause this problem and now it's on me to pay for the speaker and not sure about the enclosure. I've had various setups and have even built my own box that's still holding strong for over 8 years. I'm working with minimal space and not as savvy with customizations but wouldn't think something like this could happen. It is enclosed and designed for a 'slim' space. Any insights?

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[kramer_212 10+ year member]

shouldn't, box might be to small (take it out and give it some tlc if its leaking) sounds like a cheap woofer, or your overpowering it.

 

[HaloZero]

Yeah, overpowering it was another topic of conversation but the stock head, built into the computer of the car //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif doesn't display the volume level and at a certain point, if the amp and subwoofer are supplied, overpowering shouldn't be an option, thus the point of getting a pre-made kit as I'm not aware of thermal output, amp, voltage, etc... The amp has bass boost, gain and freq which are set to the recommended values. bass boost of course 0 and don't recall the other settings. I'm going to work out what I can with this vendor and he was even mentioning upgrading to 8 ohm speaker and some capacitors to build in the box to change something or another that should reduce power to the speakers but seemed pretty animate that simply having a leak might do this damage. As a result can push the cost to me...

Besides keeping the volume down, any ideas on how to stop overpowering it?

 

[BnGRacing 10+ year member]

Sounds like you need a subsonic filter (passive) of some sort. Your car may have some funky stuff going on in its DSP to coax more bass out of the speakers and could be sending freq

Finding out if an enclosure is sealed well is easy; push on the cone, slowly, and if it takes a couple seconds to 'spring' back - you're OK. Past that, over excursion is usually the culprit for ripping apart surrounds, spiders, tinsel leads, etc. Lower freq. require more excursion to reproduce and a subsonic filter will limit that. Look into Harrison Labs and see if you can rig something of theirs up to solve your issue.