i have an interesting audio issue with my WCS: the over-all volume, including the start-up "bong," is quite hot or loud in relation to any of my other WPC games. even when i turn it down to "1" it's still about the same as my TOM (identical hardware, for reference) on "5" or "6". and of course, it does shut off at "0".

my question is for other WCS owners, is the original digital audio mastered at a noticeably higher level than many other WPC games?

for trouble-shooting, i started with the minimum-volume override (new batteries after being in storage for six months.) then i tried swapping the ribbon cable from TOM (a suggestion from another person on another forum.) no change. then i swapped the ROMs over to the audio board from TOM. that didn't make any difference either. with those two things eliminated, it's likely in the ROMs themselves or somewhere downstream from the audio board, and i really don't think there's much there other than the speakers, which appear to be original to the cab.

when i was initially looking at the board, i noticed that the ROMs appear to be aftermarket or have been re-burned at some point. this is a machine that was re-imported from Italy, and these are the ROMs it came with. i have my doubts that it's possible, but could aftermarket ROMs somehow have the digital audio at a higher level than originals?

if WCS is just louder than other games, i'd rather not spend a lot of time chasing my tail trying to get the issue resolved. i have TOM, CV, and TAF in the house to compare to: both TOM and TAF could be turned down to quite faint, CV wouldn't drop as low as either but definitely more so than WCS.

this machine has been on-location since i bought it and the lack of a low-volume adjustment hasn't been a problem, but i'm starting to rent my games out since location play in Washington is unlikely to come back any time soon, and this might be an issue for someone in a home setting.