brand new 10" ultimax with glue joint problem - return or use warranty if necessary?

[guitar maestro]

So I was breaking in a brand new Ultimax I just received.* Naturally it was a 20Hz test tone to get the excursion flowing.* After a while I heard a ticking noise, and found this:* the epoxy/CA/whatever at the triple joint was allowed to roll-over into the 1st trough of the surround:






This is the case on both sides where the tinsel leads are.* This is not how my other (used) Ultimax is, and thus works just fine.* The noise was the adhesive that had lifted off the trough of the spider (at all 4 points) was smacking the spider, like 4 little feet tapping as the assembly traversed from peak-to-peak.* Hopefully you can see what I mean in this picture:




I don't suspect it would be a world-ending problem as I'll never run anything below 30ish Hz, but still, I know for a fact it shouldn't be that way and I can only suspect that there is a small chance that the section that has lifted out of the trough might take the rest of the joint out with it.* What would you do?* I know it has a 5yr warranty, so that does put me somewhat at ease.

[Millstonemike]

If purchased from PE within the last 45 days, call their customer service.* That should be a quick turnaround for a replacement (a few days).

[tomzarbo]

Yup, replacement should be no problem... that's a failure, and I'm pretty sure they would want to know about this.
TomZ

[guitar maestro]

10-4.* I'll email the return/customer serv/technical department tomorrow morning with pictures.

[guitar maestro]

My replacement 10" Ultimax slipped by QC. Someone on the assembly line needs a write-up, or the QC person. I did consider that maybe I'm over-reacting and that it will hold up fine, but nope. After giving it some gas to loosen things up, hairline cracks:








The rest of the glue bead at the triple joint is fine, they're just pouring on way too much at the tinsel lead locations! Ugh!

Check your Ultimax's very carefully!

[badman]

That sucks- unfortunately QC is the first thing to go when feature-rich drivers are sold at bargain prices. You'll have to have them provide another one, unless the driver's within spec and you were just pushing it beyond limits, but it's likely distorting pretty bad due to rocking mode and thus not in-spec.

[guitar maestro]

That sucks- unfortunately QC is the first thing to go when feature-rich drivers are sold at bargain prices. You'll have to have them provide another one, unless the driver's within spec and you were just pushing it beyond limits, but it's likely distorting pretty bad due to rocking mode and thus not in-spec.

When I break in my woofers I break then in at Xmax. Nothing wrong with that. I'm sure the driver indeed is "within spec" if I were to measure it, but that is not the issue. There should not be any glue in the 1st trough of the spider outside of the main glue bead on the triple-joint. It's not like this is the 1st subwoofer or speaker I've ever purchased in my life.

Here are pics of the used 10" Ultimax I bought late last year from the classifieds here on PETT. Perfect triple joint glue bead:

[guitar maestro]

PE Tech staff got back to me already. The extra glue should not pose a problem, turns out the other one had some other issue as well. Here's to hoping all goes well.


On a side note, has anyone measured an Ultimax's harmonic distortion to an equivalent-sized Dayton Reference HO woofer?