You have to remember that the presets ignore the knob settings until you change it. In other words, when you select the Clean channel, there is echo dialed in to the preset. Just grab the delay knob and spin it to the off position. If it's already there, spin it and put it back. If you don't want that as part of your preset, once you've got the sound you want, press and hold the Clean (or whichever preset you are setting) for a few seconds. This will store the settings you chose into the preset.
And as far as the loudness of the Metal preset, turn the Master Volume all the way down before selecting it. Then barely tweak the Master Volume up. I can get a great tone with apartment-appropriate volume out of this thing...
Hope this helps. I'm a new Spider IV 15 owner too... Loving it.
