Anyone should've gotten the 1'' thick conductor joke! It's absolutely true if you have an old service it's time to upgrade everything that you can. I removed a cord from an outlet in my kitchen one time, don't remember what I unplugged, it sparked smoked and caught on fire for a second or two then it tripped the breaker. I thought I was gonna burn the house down, it was pretty scary. I was able to pull the wires out enough to cut off the burnt section and I installed all new outlets and a few gfi's at that time. An old outlet can go bad at anytime.
I hired a reputable electrician to replace my service panel, he had the power company come out and replace the overhead line from the street all the way to the house, using larger wires, they also put in a new larger transformer and pole closer to my house, the old transformer was at the street, I can look out the window and see my own big transformer in my yard. It's not my own anymore, it was replaced with a larger one five months ago and is now feeding my sons new house also. I can't tell a difference in sound quality.