The arcadeshop cocktail is priced right but a friend of mine got one and he was disappointed with a few things. It's built out of mdf not real wood and when he received it, it had a big chunk out of it. Plus he didn't care for the fake wood grain and the control panels are a little small. Also, I heard from a tech at Happs that the vision pro is a lower end monitor that tends to have a few problems.
But at that price you can't expect it to have the best of everything. Still a good deal, especially when compared to the $3200 this other place is asking.
Lets take this one point at a time. "Real Arcade cabinets" tend to be made of MDF and not WOOD. Not all of them, but i'd venture to guess the MAJORITY of them are made of MDF...and certainly a minority are made of "real wood".
The "fake wood grain" is also a standard affair on cocktail cabinets and has been so for about 30 years.
The control panels are approximately the same size as the control panels of a standard Midway type cocktail table.
Finally, the VisionPro 19" monitor from HAPP is a standard drop-in replacement monitor. It is a good monitor, no better or worse than others. I have no idea why a HAPP tech would say their own monitor was a lower quality monitor when that is not the fact...i'd buy one before I bought a new Wells Gardner, that is for sure. My only guess would be he was trying to sell you the more expensive monitor.
Bottom line is that the arcadeship cabinet is a standard arcade cocktail cabinet made of standard arcade cocktail cabinet material with a standard arcade cocktail cabinet size and shape holding a standard resolution QUALITY monitor...
PS: If your friend had contacted arcadeshop about the piece missing from his cocktail (chunk of MDF), they'd have likely replaced the part or cabinet.
