There will not be much excursion in trance, techno, or similar. I think lower the frequency higher the excursion and how fast it recovers depend on suspension, cone material and bl? I could be wrong, but not usually, lol. Polo.
PS- If I am wrong at least I tried unlike some chicken sh!t posters, hahahha
i think it has to do more with motor design and bl strength, EX: my atlas's have 18mm of excursion and a kicker cvr has 12mm of excursion, but if you play rock or something that has a really fast beat the atlas's keep up a lot better, they do get a little muddy but not as much as the cvr did.
I'm not an expert in subs either but a 2 mm difference won't make any difference either way. Like others have said...the build quality, design and setup of the sub will have MUCH more effect on the sounds than some xmax spec.
An example would be to put ANY JL sub with any xmax spec against any Audiobahn or Xplode sub with lower xmax and the JL will blow it way in sound quality and tightness.
but IDK 