Thoughts on helping me trouble shoot a wido's syst

Hello all,

I have been helping a local widow try to get her deceased husband's system back up and running again. She is fairly local, but not just around the corner. Victor Khomenko of BAT put us together through a distress call on AA.

System is Quad ESL 63 speakers driven by Threshold S300 amp, CJ PV6 preamp, with several sources. The first visit I found a blown rail fuse in each channel of the Threshold amp. I replaced them and the rig was up and running again. However, I noted some static occasionally during playback, and recommended a tube change for the CJ preamp. I am not sure whether it was preamp tubes or the Quad speakers that were the cause of the static though, as I am unfamiliar with Quad speakers. They did sound very good aside from the static though.

Anyway, I am still waiting for the new tubes to come in when she e-mails me that the system went down again. I suspect the rail fuses blew again,as I noted from the paperwork that her late husband left behind that it looks like the rail fuses are an ongoing issue.

My question is this, for those more knowledgeable than myself (Al, hint, hint). I have heard that Quads present a difficult load, and that she is driving them through 40 foot runs of smaller gauge speaker cable from across the room. Now I do not know for sure if she has blown rail fuses again, but I suspect that she has. If she has blown rail fuses again, would you suspect that the long speaker cable runs could be the issue, or possibly she is not using proper sequencing when turning on/off her system? I'm thinking she may be turning her amp on first, and the CJ may have leaking coupling caps that may be leaking DC, so when she turns the preamp on after the amp is already on, she is blowing the fuses.

She says she is using proper sequencing, amp last thing on, first off, but when pressed about the importance, she cannot be totally certain of the order.

Anyway, bottom line, there could be many issues here, as far as I know. Quads may need service, long cable runs may be the issue, as might leaking caps from the CJ. Is there anyway to test the caps? What do you folks think the main cause would be?

I do plan on going back to replace the tubes when they come in, and will not be surprised to find more blown rail fuses when I do. I am pretty busy, and can't afford to go running over to her house on a regular basis, but I want to help as much as I can. Is there anyway to test the output of the CJ for leaky caps for DC with a DMM? How about anyway to check the Quads? I have very little experience trouble shooting electrostatic speakers.

Thanks all for your feedback.

Cheers,
John