King Rex to the Rescue!
Sometime back in late August I think, I was pondering some impending amplifier changes to the system. The amplifier issue was a frustrating and lingering one in which the failed Soulution 711 monoblocs were replaced by the famed CH M10 monos which didn’t end well for me due to what I suspect was a poor impedance match with Wilson Alexx V’s. For a while the terrific Parasound JC1+ monoblocs spun around in the system nicely until a permanent change was enabled by the arrival of the magnificent Gryphon Mephistos. Somewhere in this floating parade of amps it occurred to me that I should revisit my fundamental electric power grid. One would think that since I built my home nearly 10 years ago, I would have dealt with this issue at the time. And in truth, I thought I did. Yet I suspected that a current assessment might be beneficial. I had seen the postings of uber electrician Rex Hungerford in these pages in which he apparently offered his consulting services to wanting audiophiles even though he was based in Seattle.
In September I called Rex (Kingrex Electric) who told me he would be in New Jersey in the fall and would be happy to drop by for a consultation. He arrived in mid-November with a local electrician, Craig Bradley, and did an assessment. He noticed some obvious deficiencies but more importantly, made some straightforward suggestions for modest ameliorations that might translate to significant SQ performance benefits. The utility company kindly delivers 800 amp service to my home from the street about 450 feet away. However, once the service gets up the driveway into my home to the main service panel, the line that then feeds the music room is 2 gauge aluminum, not copper. Moreover, once that 125 amp feed line gets to the music room, it hits a Siemens panel board with aluminum buss boards before it goes merrily on its way to the audio electronics. (Hint- see where we’re going with this?). In addition, Rex and Craig noticed some corrosion on the ground lines both at the main outdoor 800 amp panel outside the house, as well as the primary panel inside the house. We discussed some plans for how to move forward, but before he left, he told me why he was in New Jersey. He asked “do you know some guy named Michael Fremer? We just re-did his house yesterday.” Heh, heh, heh.
Over the next few weeks, we communicated by email and phone. For me, this was the fun part. I’m pretty detail oriented and ran a bunch of questions by Rex which would probably have caused others to throw their hands up and run from the job as fast as they could. I sent him specs for several panel boards (or load centers as they are often called commercially), breaker types (arc-fault, thermo-mag, etc.) and wiring ratings that most people would have ignored or at least charge me for their reviewing time. In every case, Rex answered every question openly with fastidious precision. This was the level of conversation that I expect with scientists in my labs, but from an electrician? Who knew? But I sure found it refreshing. The things that would have driven me to walk away could have been anything that set of my BS meter. Yet Rex persevered in putting up with question after question with no pretense. I’m always particularly impressed when someone answers a question by simply saying “I don’t know”. After we hit that mark a few times, I knew that I was working with the right guy.
Once we agreed on the scope of work, it took a few months before Rex shipped me the customized Square D panel board that he thought would be best. Part of the “Rex treatment” is that he takes a stock Square D panel board and just damps the crap out of it with a ton of brushed-on painted material and added sorbothane in critical places to make it as ring-free as possible. Don’t’ ask me if this stuff matters. You already know the answer which is a resolute “yes!” since in high end audio, we know everything matters, especially if you pay for it! Seriously I will never know for sure if the Rex panel box damping treatment makes a significant difference. But everything I know tells me it can’t hurt and is almost surely beneficial although one can always question the degree of benefit. All I could do at this point is go with the flow, and so I did while waiting for the real answer (the SQ) to come out in the wash as they say.
It was therefore with great anticipation that we finally found a mutually convenient time last week for Rex and Craig to do their work. Watching Rex and Craig work was really wonderful. It was like watching two really good surgeons in the OR figuring out what to cut where, or bolt, clamp or screw there. (It’s also why I probably never went into Orthopedics!). They made efficient use of their time and at the end of day 1, we had blast-off. The aluminum wire from the main interior panel to the music room was replaced by 2 gauge copper, the new panel board was installed, the breakers were replaced, a significant number of grounding changes were made (part of Rex’s secret sauce, if there is such a thing) and the system was finally fired up. The next day, Craig completed hooking up the additional circuits for the room (mostly lighting and non-audio duplex outlets) while Rex used my handy stethoscope to check each breakers for hum and modify accordingly when possible.
We spent the night before the install listening to the system to get a good sense of baseline. And what we heard was admittedly very good. However, the first night after the install, I think we were both surprised, and a bit astonished, with what his changes hath wrought. Put succinctly, there was a level of clarity that was significantly improved from the previous night. Unfortunately, the bass didn’t quite reach the same level of definition and authority that the rest of the system manifested on day 1, but since bass typically is the last thing to come in with any major electronic or wiring change, I was not concerned. Fortunately by day 4, my patience was rewarded and the bass became aligned with the rest of the range in providing a lower distortion, higher definition presentation. Qualitatively, it’s reasonable to look at the changes we heard as a fundamental improvement due to going from aluminum busses and wiring to copper wiring in the walls and silver-coated copper breakers in the Square D panel. Aluminum wiring or contacts have been described as sounding “soft” in comparison to copper, but I think there is more to aluminum which is a grain structure in the range of 2-2.5K that accompanies this softness. Although I’m uncertain as to why an improvement in clarity occurred, particularly in this range, I had no quarrel with it! Could Rex’s grounding improvements also be responsible? Sure, why not? I may never know the contribution of elements here but in the end, it doesn’t much matter to me. The improvement in sonic performance was significant and impressive.
To be continued.....
