I have a Diamond professional, and it's drop for me. No trapdoors needed to get the junk out that shouldn't be in there. Can't imagine ever having to pull some balls out of a pocket before shooting another in, as so many will fit in one pocket. Also makes it really easy to clean when I vacuum the table as I can vacuum the inside of the pockets at the same time. Also really don't like bending over to get the balls out. Mine is very quiet. More so now actually than when it was put in, as I slipped a layer of 1/8" craft foam between the pocket and skirting. Without it, it would occasionally clunk when a ball went in. Had a Valley bar table years ago, talk about a mess, stuff was always getting stuck in it. Then there was the issue with the wife's cat at the time. For some reason it thought the inside of the table was a good hiding place when company came over. We all got a good laugh at it when playing pool and the cat would stare at us, looking out the ball return window. Sometimes at the end of a game we would have to send some more balls down the pockets to get the cat to move so all the balls would come down. Also, the amount of cat hair on the balls was hell. Just maybe that is really why I like drop pockets.