I just found this thread, and I got this machine for my girlfriend 2 years ago. While she loves it, it is indeed very, very loud. Living in an apartment, there's no way we could enjoy playing it. So I took apart the door, and managed to stuff lots of padding in front of the speakers. It helped some, but even with the default volume switch on low, and with the padding, it's still LOUD. It is a beautiful machine, though. I'd like to attempt splicing in a volume knob, but I'm afraid. I'd hate to ruin it.