In my opinion, when it comes to the Dual boilers, i think the Duetto and the Vivaldi lead the pack. I think they have the best features, are well built, and they are both on version II, so any improvement early adopters wanted to see, have been made.

I ended up going with the Vivaldi II in the end, but I argued with myself about the two machines for a while before I made the decision. When I first got to use the two next to each other, I liked the VII more. Then, over the next few months, I was leaning towards the duetto, based largely on the 58mm group, and the ease of use if not plumbing. But, when it came to it, There was a good deal on a vivaldi, and I knew it was the machine I wanted, it had features i really liked, like massive, dry steam power, line pressure pre-infusion, and most important, there are few machines as reliable, and with as big a user base, as the Vivaldi. . . And thats something that made me very comfortable in my purchase.