Remember that it's possible that it had nothing to do with you or the empeg. It could have been a short in the amp, a faulty speaker, etc.

Sure, it could have been caused by turning it up too loud. But unless I was there and I was seeing what happened exactly, I can't give an opinion. But the usual advice of adjusting the amp gains so that empeg->0db is as loud as you'd ever want to listen to it still stands.

Damage to speakers can be:

- Too much juice through the speaker coil (i.e, wiring or amplifier short, amp too loud).
- Too much amplitude/excursion of the cone (turn it up too loud)
- Hard-clipped signals going through the speaker for too long (bad amp, too much bass for the speaker, etc.)

Anyone have any other possible causes of speaker damage?

Also, when you say the speaker was "blown", can you be more specific? Did you remove the speaker and find out exactly what's wrong with it? Fused coil? Torn surrounds? What?