Eminence Kilomax Pro-18A 18" Cast Frame Driver

I highly recommend using this sub in a really small enclosure. 5 cu. ft tuned to 40-45hz with no or minimal fill puts the mechanical power handling right up there with the electrical power handling. The smaller box minimizes the cone displacement within the xmax all the way up to 1250W. People have problems with this sub using it in any bigger box because say in a 10 cu. ft enclosure you're already out of travel at just 500 watts below 60hz. So trying to give it a lot of power in a big low tuned box is going to make it easy to rip the cone from the suspension. It sounds great in this enclosure with a ton of punch around 63hz major kick drum power and plenty of bang and rumble at 40-50. Use a 24db/octave high pass at 35-40hz

I'm going to start by establishing a baseline. My system utilizes 4 McCauley 6174's. Simply stated, the Kilomax's can't touch them. I had an idiot of a sound guy run the board for a band and smoked a pair of the 6174's. Replacement baskets would have taken 4 weeks to come in and I had shows lined up. I did some box modeling with the TSP of several drivers and the kilomax's came the closest to the 6174's. Ordered them and 3 days later they were here. I really dig them. They're well made. The heatsink on the front is a great idea (but not for my boxes cause they use an inverted driver alignment). They sound really good. Very solid in the 45-65 range. Good transient response. Now the problem. The 6174's have an incredible suspension. 15.6mm X-max, over 2" in the nonlinear travel zone. They will not bottom out. I don't put hi-pass filters on them. They don't need it. They actually run COOLER WITHOUT it. The Kilomax however isn't built to do this. They MUST have a hi-pass filter. The power handling is great when you set the filters properly. I didn't have any. The cone slammed so far in and out that it separated from the spider. The voice coil is in good shape, and there are no signs of overheating. Only mechanical damage. No electrical overpowering, only mechanical overpowering. I like these drivers, and for the price they're a good deal, but know their limits. Use hi-pass filters and you'll be very satisfied.

I built 4 cabs using the Eminence site's size and port recommendations. A really good design and the box is very powerful and punchy. Not only those 2 attributes, but the box/driver combo is very musical and the notes are clear and undistorted. A hard combination in the bass world (you can easily tell the B string from the E string on a bass guitar at power) as well as having real bass clarity in sound reinforcement.
The critical thing about this driver is the motor is SO powerful it can exceed the suspension's ability to control the cone if it's not used correctly in the right tuning.
Get it in their box and Hi-Pass it STEEPLY at 40hz. For really loud use, HP it at 50hz. Thermally this driver is great, it can dissipate heat as fast as it makes it with normal use. But if you're clipping the amps, bring in more boxes and more amps.
There is nothing to gain using the voice coil as an "Easy Bake" oven. It will not get any louder.
Just treat the suspension with some common sense and think about what this driver is going thru. Any driver that can do a 9mm Xmax has some serious acceleration/deceleration going on.