I guess I must just be one of the lucky ones. I have been running my labhorns for about 18 months now with no problems. I have also built labhorns for several others and too my knowledge non of them have experienced driver failures. I do stress the importance of checking the access panels regularly and suggest they give them a healthy 1800 watts min. I power mine with one RMX2450 bridged per labhorn. I don't clip them but they have had some pretty good workouts. I check my access panels regularly to insure that they are tight. The screws do back out from the vibration and constant pounding. It is not uncommon for them to back out a full turn over the coarse of a couple shows. I use a rubber weather strip for the seal around the access panels. It has 3 raised ribs and is 3/8 inch thick before tightening. All other joints are sealed with epoxy.
I am very happy with the lab12 from Eminence. I have to wonder if there are other issues with some of the failures we hear about. Maybe a bad seal, air leak around the wires, access plate recess is maybe too deep reducing the air flow the the driver vent, 1/16" too deep is too much. While some of the dimensions of the cabinet are very forgiving some are also very critical. All module dimensions are critical, as well as driver recess depth.
I am sure there are defective drivers out there just as there are with any production part. Just as I am sure there are defective boxes. After all anyone can make a mistake, and everyone has a different idea of what is accurate. While one guy measures with Calipers and holds within thousandths of an inch the next guy measures with a tape measure, and the next guy may say hey its just wood, anything within 1/8" or even 3/16's is close enough. Not to say that they are wrong, just a different perspective on what is accurate. One persons idea of an airtight joint may be one that is glued together because the glue will fill any gaps and seal the joint while another would seal all the joints with caulk, and the next might use a few coats of epoxy and test them with compressed air.
Not saying that the drivers in question are or are not defective. Just saying that out of all the driver failures we have heard about over the life of this project I would guess that at least 50% were most likely a result of something else, like improper filter settings, a loose access panel, air leaks, or other issues.
Eminence has been very supportive of their product and we should be greatful. After all they have no way of knowing how well each cabinet is built. What filter settings are used or how much power each driver is given. They just give us all the benefit of the doubt. You can't put a price on customer support but if you could Eminence would easily charge a surcharge for it.