A local dealer recently said I should consider a Baratza Preciso over the Vario that I was planning on purchasing. He said that the burr set was superior to the Vario (which I've read is awesome). I've read so many positive comments about the Vario here on HB and on CG that I was surprised this dealer recommended a cheaper grinder. I had settled on the Vario mainly because I wanted to be able to easily make press and cone-filtered coffee as well as espresso (I may pick up a dedicated espresso-only grinder in the future, like a super jolly).

The Vario (~$450) has 54mm Mahlkönig ceramic flat burrs and features dual-cam grind adjustment with 230 settings and the Preciso (~$300) has 40mm conical burrs with 40 grind settings and 11 micro adjustments. The Vario adds electronic dosing with separate buttons for espresso, filter and press pot, which I think is a great idea for a grinder which is designed to be multi-functional. The ceramic burrs on the Vario should theoretically stay sharp longer, from what I've read.

(I currently have a 10 year old Solis Maestro Plus with a broken grind adjustment. I'd repair it, but I think it has seen better days and will be given to my brother in law to replace his blade grinder.)

I searched for info on the Preciso here and on CG and came up short. Does anyone have experience with both machines?

I only have experience on the Baratza Vario, but I was closely watching the reviews for the Virtuoso Preciso and considering this as an upgrade before I decided to go ahead and purchase the Vario instead. The decision to purchase the Vario was based mainly on the fact that the Preciso wasn't yet available and I wanted to upgrade sooner rather then later.

You could take a look at the review here on the OrphanEspresso site, if you haven't already seen it or check out Mark Prince's recent review of Baratza Grinders product offering here which is a download on this Home-Barista website. Kyra Baratza also shared partical distribution graphs here on the Home-Barista site for the Maestro, Virtuoso, Preciso, and Vario.

GrainBrewer wrote: He said that the burr set was superior to the Vario (which I've read is awesome). I've read so many positive comments about the Vario here on HB and on CG that I was surprised this dealer recommended a cheaper grinder.

To my knowledge, the Preciso uses the same burr set as the Virtuoso, which most would consider inferior to the Vario. The dealer's opinion may be based on the idea that conical burrs are better than flat burrs, which I suspect is true of the big commercial grinders, but it's not a hard and fast rule among grinders priced $500 and under.

GrainBrewer wrote: I had settled on the Vario mainly because I wanted to be able to easily make press and cone-filtered coffee as well as espresso (I may pick up a dedicated espresso-only grinder in the future, like a super jolly).

The Vario and the Preciso should both allow you to brew all different methods. Also, there's no need for a dedicated espresso grinder with the Vario. It excels at espresso. Many here have compared it to a Super Jolly, in terms of the quality of grind, so there should be no reason to upgrade.

I've never seen the Preciso up close, but I've owned the regular Virtuoso and currently own the Vario. The Preciso is meant to bridge the gap between the Virtuoso and the Vario, in terms of price and performance. I find the Vario to be superior to the Virtuoso in almost every way. I even noticed that it produced a much cleaner cup of Press pot coffee.

I see no reason to feel like you're "settling" for the Vario.

Mark Prince of CoffeeGeek.com did an in-depth review of all of the Baratza grinders. You can read about his findings here http://baratza.com/blog/?p=39

http://www.baratza.com/products.php?id=43

I think the Preciso may have started life with the Virtuoso burrs, but at some point they developed a new burr set for it.

Having used the Vario for over a year now, I would miss the three electronic timers if I went to a Preciso. I have one set for a short purge, one set to make a cup of drip, and one set to make a shot. My MIL uses my vario for drip after I leave for work, so it is really convenient to set it for drip when I leave in the morning, so she can just add coffee and push the start button.

Randy

I've tested both grinders... I was using the Preciso for about 2 weeks when something hard or maybe a clogged outlet have resulted in stripped gears (I couldn't find anything like a rock or green bean).

So I'm using the Vario now (it's from Mahlkönig here in Brazil). I have to say is not so easy to compare both grinders, taste wise. I think I prefer the Vario over the Preciso, but I should compare side by side, as soon as I fix the Preciso.

The Vario noise is much lower and nicer. Neither one is high pitched, but the Preciso shows the effort it's doing and you hear the gears running - overall it seems louder than the Vario. I don't know if it would be possible to improve that without changing too much the price of the grinder. Both grinders have similar speed (the Preciso rotating at 500 rpm as I've not tested the lower 400 rpm, and the Vario at 1000 rpm, AFAIK).

The other features from Vario, like the digital timer and memory are nice, but maybe one could spend $100 on the upcoming Esatto to use with the Preciso instead of the Vario.

Márcio.