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Volume and vibration - Williams/Bally Tables

Lroy

Lroy

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Apr 25, 2019
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This may sound very silly but having never owned a pinball table (earnestly looking and saving cash for my first) I was wondering if the volume and vibration of 90s Bally/Williams tables could be adjusted, turned off?

I’m intending to put my first table either in the lounge or kitchen and have small children, the loudness and vibration of the real-life tables which I love myself may wake them if I play late at night. So just wondered how easy is it for a layman, like myself, to adjust these settings. Does it vary machine by machine or do tables from the same manufacturer and era share general settings?


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In a word No.
There is so much stuff on a pinball that creates noise. The biggest thing being coils firing, these cannot be made quiet they are what they are.
Give the wife and kids a set of headphones each instead.
 
The noise of pins at home never woke my daughter up, so long as they don't sleep in the same or next room as a machine (guessing pins will be on ground floor, bedrooms upstairs) it should be fine.
 
Thanks for the responses chaps, good to get a sense of how a pinball table would actually fit into our home environment.

We’re going to have a test-run, so to speak, before making a purchase as the good lady has secured a table for us to loan for a month. Arriving over the weekend, fingers crossed.

Next dummy question. How easy is it to get the glass off and physically move a stuck ball, should the need arise. I saw experienced peeps taking off what I presume to be the ‘lock bar’ and sliding the glass off to this on occasion at UK PinFest. Is this it or am I missing a crucial step?


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There's a minimum volume that most games can be set to, and it's not ultra-quiet but it's below the point where it's louder than the actual mechanicals. If you wanted the game sound lower than that, you can do hardware mods, but it's almost pointless because there's virtually nothing you can do about the noise of the pinballs and the coils themselves. If you live in flats or have paper-thin walls you're going to have to be social about your game time.

Lroy said:
Next dummy question. How easy is it to get the glass off and physically move a stuck ball, should the need arise. I saw experienced peeps taking off what I presume to be the ‘lock bar’ and sliding the glass off to this on occasion at UK PinFest. Is this it or am I missing a crucial step?
Click to expand...
Yep, that's all it is. Open coin door, move a lever, lift off that lockdown bar, then glass slides out, sometimes by itself if it's all new and really clean. You'll very quickly develop it into almost one fluid motion. It's definitely a one-man job.

Oh yeah, the above being said - you'll be amazed just how much louder and more violent pinballs sound with the glass off...
 
I did see the volume of newer tables being adjusted at UK PinFest, some tables even seem to have headphone jacks.

I didn’t expect the 90s Bally/Williams tables to have headphone jacks but I did hope they might have volume controls for the music/call-outs etc. But from the responses so far, that’s a no is it?


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Lroy said:
I did see the volume of newer tables being adjusted at UK PinFest, some tables even seem to have headphone jacks.

I didn’t expect the 90s Bally/Williams tables to have headphone jacks but I did hope they might have volume controls for the music/call-outs etc. But from the responses so far, that’s a no is it?
Click to expand...
There's definitely volume settings on almost all games (definitely all 90s pins.)

The volume settings range from 'still very audible but almost drowned out by the mechanics' at the bottom, to the top of the range which is 'Beatlemania at the Shea Stadium' sort of speaker-ripping extreme.

Headphone jacks on all games except for some models of some of the very newest games, are all mods. They're primarily for when you want ear-splitting game audio without being more anti-social than the nominal level of pinball noise.
 
@ronsplooter Ah Cheers fella. I hadn’t seen your message before my last post [emoji3526]

I’m using TapaTalk and will try and respond to your message (I got an email notification, not in TapaTalk App).


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windoesnot said:
The noise of pins at home never woke my daughter up, so long as they don't sleep in the same or next room as a machine (guessing pins will be on ground floor, bedrooms upstairs) it should be fine.
Click to expand...

That’s what I’m hoping.


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yeah, I agree. You'll have no problem.

You can turn the speaker volume right down in the options, the mechanical noise cant be helped, but its not really audible through a floor.

Me and Lou sleep directly above the games room, and If me and mates come back from the pub late, she often hears us coming in, but once we close the games room door she doesnt hear the machines and gets back to sleep no problem.
 
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