My game is also experiencing a lot of out lane drains. Out of the box the right side is all the way up. On the left side it's in the middle. I think the biggest contributor to the drains is the ball speeds. Now it could be just cause it's new; however the ball does seem to scoot if your hitting shots. On the flip side if your not hitting shots, it is punishing. Like the green pirate targets punishing or the blue knub of death. I would swear the left orbit is a mind f$@!. It seems so tight when your shooting up it; but depending on the speed the ball is plunged/hit the ball can range it's exit almost inlane to inlane. Wicked spin on balls.

Gene's head, clean shots that seem to make a deep entry (wow did I just type that) come back out with a good amount of English. Shots that graze the lock targets going in cause ricochets over to the opposite side killing the balls momentum and trickling back out. Sometimes the ball doesnt break the optos to start the disc. Even when it does; if the ball is barely on the disc it slides off instead of spins. Haven't remove the head to see if there is a grip tape of sorts.

Regarding the sound and lights it seems like spike has step up its game in both categories. I don't normally crank my sound way up. Just loud enough to enjoy but still have a baseball game or radio on in the background. Usually between 28 to 34 on the previous OS. On spike 20 is louder than I would normally have my games. The sound is more full and balanced. I have never upgraded any of my games sound. The lights, there are two things that jumped out right away. The attract mode lighting sequences are smooth and gradual. Even the color changing LEDs seem to morph through the color spectrum instead of just blinking red, orange, yellow, green.. Not a huge thing but it made it easier to justify in my mind the pro was the right call for me. Second, lifting the playfield the majority of the LEDs are on two large boards with very few single LEDs.

The song choices on the 10 still bug me a tad. This is being picky. If given the chance I would replace the same song with the Alive 2 versions. I actually don't mind Lick it up and Love it loud as I don't have an expectation of what I want. The one thing I did notice was these songs are quite a bit shorter than Metallica so it is more likely for songs to repeat before you change to a new song.

I just dropped in 1.02 and plan to get some time on it this weekend. Need to play that before I can comment on gameplay.

Strutter not being there is a crime. Out of the ten there I would swap love it loud with Strutter as the DMD clips are generic for now. Would also like to switch out Lick it up but the DMD clips are pretty specific to the song. Could easily switch Firehouse for Hotter than Hell. Black Diamond I'm on the fence. Older versions of this song rock but this rerecorded one is just alright. Absolutely God of Thunder should be Genes MB music but I wouldn't be able to keep the balls in play to get through the intro..