The bad news is the speakers couldn't handle the dirty power it literally melted the area around the cones that glue to magnet sleeve,

This does not seem reasonable to me.

I am not questioning your assertion that your speakers were damaged. After all, you were there!

But the way the empeg works, as the battery voltage drops, the player continues to work just fine until the voltage drops to (someone correct me if I am wrong here) somewhere around 10-11 volts, then it shuts off cleanly, turning off the amplifiers when it does so.

Hmmm... is it possible in this "auto-start" failure mode that the empeg either doesn't turn off when the voltage gets too low, or if it does turn off is it possible that it doesn't turn off the amps?

Why would low voltage to the amps cause damage to the speakers in any case?

This whole episode seems rather strange to me.

tanstaafl.