so i ask (tony specifically, since i know he did this already), this test tone from colledit pro isnt inheritly clipping at the source, right?

Correct.

However, pure test tones always sound louder than music. They deflect the waveform to its maximum amount, 100 percent of the time, constantly. Regular music only does a maximum deflection on occasional rare peaks.

Just view a piece of music in CoolEdit compared to a test tone in CoolEdit and you can literally SEE the difference.

That's why you always turn down the volume before playing a test tone and gradually increase it until it's loud enough to do your tests with (but never up all the way). Also, I would never have used a test tone to measure distortion/clipping. I'd only use music for that. Very dangerous, for the reasons stated above.

Sorry to hear about the blown speakers. Live and learn, eh?