I echo the Ops cheers for Stern.
Pinside is full of great people. You need help with your pin? You'll find it here. Want the latest news? It's here.
There are thousands of threads here civilly discussing repair techniques, strategies, EM maintenance etc etc. Unfortunately, the pinball threads I'm most interested in seems to be dominated with vitriolic grandstanding. It's a shame. It ruins the experience.
I love my modern Sterns. I've been pretty vocal about that.
I don't love them because of blind allegiance.
I don't love them because I don't appreciate other eras of pinball.
I don't love them because I hate JJP.
I don't love them because I don't care about price or quality control.
I don't love them because I have a long standing beef with another Pinsider.
I'm a huge Stern supporter because they continue to design, build, and ship pinball machines I'm excited about.
Hooray for the company that has Lyman, Borg, Ritchie, Gomez, Trudeau, Sullivan, Freres, Dirty Donny, Zombie Yeti, and now Elwin?!
Hooray for the company with 10 machines in current production. TEN machines to choose from. Right now. 6 of those are HIGHLY polished, and I would argue with anybody that MET and TWD are the best pins ever made.
The only reason I would hedge my bets on those 2 machines, is I feel Lyman is going to knock BM66 out of the stratosphere! Just a hunch.
I love pinball, and that's why I'm a huge fan of Stern. Keep it positive!