There's an upside in weight - a Stern is easily 100 pounds less than a bally dmd. I think the Stern pricing is a rort & even some of the fans are sick of being bent over - they are at least $3k too expensive in Oz. And then the code DOES suck - maybe a year later it is improved - but it's still not perfect. And the crap with limited edition of the limited edition with the backglass sat on by a limited edition designer - it's madness & a company can only run this way, because as you say Nino, it has no real competition. but even a monopoly (providing a non-essential good) can't run this way forever - once bitten shy, twice bitten enough. Stern needs to start taking care of its customers. And maybe add at least some reinforcement so it feels like the machine is grounded.
