I have an incandescent clock currently, and am planning to change it to an Ingo for the opposite reason to you (everything in mine is LED), but I'm in the UK so don't know if that helps you much.

Out of interest - how would you deal with the "when not if" problem with incandescent bulbs cooking the optos, etc in the clock?

As a novice.. why is it that you need to get a new repro playfield "cleared"? Isn't that something the people that make them should do? Shouldn't it be delivered in a condition that you can immediately use?

What is clearing?

Apologies for the inexperience on this - just curious as to why it seems to be tolerated that you can buy a new PF from somewhere and immediately have to send it off for rectification work?

Fair enough. It still seems strange to me that the original product as delivered is not A1. It seems like something that I'd have a conversation with the supplier about, especially as these things aren't exactly cheap.

Guess I'm just inexperienced though.

Ok that makes sense. Guess it's similar to detailing - a new car will have a reasonably good paint job but a detailer can always improve it, and would spend an amount of time doing it that a manufacturer wouldn't be able to justify financially.