Does anyone know if the new Maidens have upgraded leg brackets or are they still using the shitty brackets? Toying with just buying a NIB pro at this point.

Not mine, but I helped a friend set up his first pin yesterday! I'm planning on ordering a pro within the next couple of weeks.

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haha, we'll see. I've played both versions extensively and really enjoy them both. At the moment I'm planning on going for a pro but maybe I'll change my mind by the time I'm ready to order in a couple weeks

I should be joining the club next week! Really excited

Finally joined the club last night. Build date is 5/21/2018, interestingly there is some pooling on some of the mini posts (not the star posts). I'll probably pull them all off and put neoprene washers under them like I did with my TNA and DP.
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So I finally got to put some time into my Maiden and am noticing some pretty distinct speaker crackling. It doesn't seem to happen on the music, only on the SFX and things that use a lot of bass. I've seen some references to people putting in a dedicated amp for crackling at high volume, but I'm only playing at around volume 9... Is an amp the solution here or is there something else that could be causing this?

Well I did @vireland's external amp mod for Maiden, which resolved some speaker crackling issues I've had. After that I noticed how shitty the stock speakers are and decided to install some 4 inch Pyle speakers (Pyle PL42BL), wow what a huge difference! There are audio cues I didn't even know were in the game (like the slingshot audio). I also went ahead and installed the laziest LED speaker mod ever, but hey it looks good haha. One of these days I'll model a mount and print it. For now, this is fine with me .

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Same, but they're on the sides of the cabinet. Though I'm missing flipper buttons.

Does the orbit protector come by default on new games now?

Hopefully, worst case I'll just request one. Mine is from 2018 and didn't either. I put a deposit down on a premium as a gift for my dad so hopefully it comes with one from the factory.

Odd, I asked a couple of distributors and they hadn't heard this. I really hope it doesn't get cancelled, I have a deposit down for my dad and am super excited because it should line up approximately with his birthday.

Haha, he deserves it. Cointaker told me they'd confirm with Stern and let me know, though they think it's unlikely the run is being cancelled.