earlgrey_44 wrote:Certainly interesting to note that the profile for drip here is essentially the same as the profile for the Guatemala, which costs about 10x as much.

That was the first thing I noticed as well, unless these logarithmic graphs are just playing tricks on our eyes. I tried to play with stretching the two graphs to get the scales to line up for an easier direct comparison, but it didn't work.

Thanks to Kyle for providing the interesting chart. Please encourage the Ditting boys to take pictures of the Maestro's profile. That would also be of interest. While they're at it, maybe they could shoot pics of the competition too...

Kyle is right that the profiles provoke more questions. The very clean profile at drip/FP is notable for a $200 grinder, and supports the popular opinion that the Virtuoso is an excellent grinder in this range.

What happens if I adjust a larger MACAP or a Mazzer SJ out to the drip/FP range? I've gotten the impression that some believe that this would be a sub-optimal usage, since these espresso grinders are inherently more "dusty" than "specialized" drip grinders, and thus would not perform to the best advantage at these coarser grind levels.

Is this substantiated somewhere, or is it mainly an assumption? Or is it simply my misunderstanding?

Interesting thread. I actually read this post before coming here:

http://theotherblackstuff.ie/machines/baratza-grinders/

He finds the Maestros to produce better results at coarser settings than the Virtuoso. After some thought, I ordered a Maestro Plus today to compare against my Rocky, which I've never really been happy with for press-pot use. If it does well, I'll sell the Rocky and probably upgrade to a Super Jolly for espresso, keeping the maestro for use with everything else. It's interesting to see people say that the Virtuoso is better for press though. The people at Williams-Sonoma dragged one out and ground some samples at different settings from a fresh can of Illy with barely a nudge from me, so maybe they'll be up for some side-by-side comparison. They seem to be bored on weekday nights.

earlgrey_44 wrote:What happens if I adjust a larger MACAP or a Mazzer SJ out to the drip/FP range? I've gotten the impression that some believe that this would be a sub-optimal usage, since these espresso grinders are inherently more "dusty" than "specialized" drip grinders, and thus would not perform to the best advantage at these coarser grind levels.

Is this substantiated somewhere, or is it mainly an assumption? Or is it simply my misunderstanding?

I've been grinding for cloth filtered vac pot with a Major for the past year set 3-3.5 numbers coarser then the espresso range. This produced an enjoyable cup but also produced quite a bit of fines. Switched to a Vario several days ago & the improvement in the cup was very noticeable. We were half way through a batch of home roasted Kenya when I switched & the Vario brought out fruit flavors we just were not tasting with the Major. The Vario produces a fluffier grind in the drip range & I'm not seeing the fines that the Major produced.

JohnB. wrote:Switched to a Vario several days ago & the improvement in the cup was very noticeable. We were half way through a batch of home roasted Kenya when I switched & the Vario brought out fruit flavors we just were not tasting with the Major.

Interesting.

This sort of comparison is a lot more meaningful than the many posts findable on CG and elsewhere that say "My grinder is great for this" or "My grinder is lousy for that".

Interesting . . .

I just got around to reading this and saw that people were saying that the Virtuoso graph (from Baratza) appeared very similar to the Tanzania graph (from Uber Project), and I beg to differ. It looks like the Virtuoso doesn't get truly "peak-y" (and therefore uni-modal) until the particle size is up to 1000 mcg, which is quite a bit larger (particle-size-wise) than the Uber Project graph for "ideal filter size" (it appeared that the goal there was more like 600 mcg particles).

So, while that does imply that the Virtuoso works well once you're up into the chunkier range (maybe a Chemex grind?), it still implies that there's some bi-modalism (and thus, fines) if you're grinding for straight filter.

So the question seems to remain: is the Virtuoso (or the Vario, or the Maestro) a good grinder for filter?