Excursion vs cone area

[Casparado]

Hey everyone, 

I have been trying to figure this out for a while and I am having a hard time finding definitive information on the subject. It's going to be difficult to define my question but hopefully I can convey it properly. So, what I am wondering is which is more important... excursion or cone area. For example.... with equal power, is it better to have two 12" subs with lets say 10mm excursion ea sharing 1000w power, or one 12" sub with 20mm+ excursion sucking down 1000w by itself? 

What are the positive/negatives of either scenario? 

It's not an easy question to define, because there are so many variables. With all other factors being equal... will two lower power subs with half the excursion sound the same as one higher power sub with twice the excursion? I realize transient response will be different, with the single speaker winning out for sure. But for overall SPL response, will the two smaller subs with more cone area win out? I also read that you can start to have wave cancellations with multiple speakers, whereas with just one cone moving that's not an issue. 

Basically... if you had 1000W to play with... would you use 2 entry level but high quality 12" subs with half the excursion or one competition level 12" sub with twice the excursion?, and why??

(edit) I assume this is a question of which is better... with all other factors being equal, is it better to have more volume or more amplitude? and why??

[OGJordan]

To the ear I've always found cone area to be king

 

[DiBo]

20mm excursion on a full 1000 watts would be louder I'm assuming. 

[Triticum Agricolam]

The short answer is that cone area is almost always more important.  The reason is more cone area increases efficiency, more Xmax does nothing for efficiency.  

 

There is a lot more to it though.  What kind of enclosure it is (sealed, ported, bandpass, etc) and how much space you have to work with play a big part as well.  Another thing to think about is cone are is a measurement of a driver's physical attribute, Xmax is more of a measurement of a driver's limitation.  Because of this more Xmax only matters if you are going to be pushing a sub to its excursion limit.  In a sealed box or 4th order bandpass box, pushing a sub to its excursion limit can be easy to do.  In a ported or 6th order bandpass box, you may never get anywhere near a subs excursion limit, and in that case having a different sub with more Xmax is pointless and gains you nothing.