If i upgrade from rancilio silvia, should i upgrade from rocky? - Page 2

[Marshall]

Getting back to the OP's question and now that I have a wealth of DC experience under my belt (nearly 24 hours!), I think it would be just plain silly to lay out money for a new grinder before seeing what the DC can do with the Rocky. The deep, narrow basket and vertical water flow (as opposed to the E-61 rear entry) seem to be real channel busters. It looks like my carefully honed E-61 distribution skills are going to wither away.

I should add that I have a 5-lb bag of an Italian espresso blend someone sent me, which I thought I might have to use to train myself on the DC. But, no, I had it down within 15 minutes. "Slightly overfill, level, tap and tamp."

[shadowfax]

They may not argue about frying pans... but they do about knives! I'll put my Global knives up against any Wusthof

Man, that reminds me, last weekend I took a browse through the Houston Galleria Williams-Sonoma (they had an Elektra T1 for the now-cheap price of $4500 , which was neat to see as always), and I browsed the knives section for awhile. They had a number of Japanese knives that I had never heard of (no, not Shun--I actually have one of those)--A paring knife from this brand was $255, and my eyes glazed over at that point. I think their big 14" knives were in the >$1000 range. I was, to put it lightly, rather befuddled. I have my share of ~$100 knives, but wow. To each his own, right? Speaking of:

My point was that it's not necessary to upgrade from the Rocky. Is it possible? Is it fun? Does it make a difference? Yes, yes and possibly. Necessary? No.

Anyway...to each his own. There's no right or wrong here, just a matter of taste and opinion. We're all here looking for great espresso.

I would bring to bear Jim Schulman's test of the Rocky against the Robur (link). The Rocky landed a pair of whoppers at the low dosage, besting the Robur shots by a reasonable margin. The catch, of course, is that Jim spent a pretty insane amount of time fluffing those grinds. I believe he said that his routine would have shocked John Weiss, the father of the WDT. I can tell you that I spent a long time doing the WDT, on my doserless-modded old SJ, and my Mini which needed it pretty badly. Maybe I am retarded, but I still didn't achieve the consistency I wanted from either of those grinders. My Super Jolly leaves little to be desired other than conical curiosity--it's rock solid, and seems to laugh at the WDT.

Seems like the long and short of grinders is that there are some low-end grinders that work great, if you are willing to put in the time to make up for their shortcomings, i.e. to stir their clumpy grinds, accept their inconsistency, work around their large grind setting steps, and take the much bigger risk that they go out of commission from, as Randy mentioned, too oily beans, or simply from manufacturing defects that are more common in devices that are made to inferior standards and tolerances. And the Rocky sure seems like a winner in that low range. Personally I think I might get a Lelit PL53, if they existed in the US.

Talk of $600 grinders and the constant debating of the infinitesimal differences between them reminds me of people who are always chasing a high they cannot duplicate.

I would appreciate elaboration on that point too. It seems like the people chasing the highs are more often people with inconsistent equipment. But even if that's not the case, it seems as though everyone on this board is here seeking to improve their espresso, as you yourself say--they are chasing a high they either can't repeat, or one that they have yet to experience.

Marshall, it's nice to hear how nice the DC Mini is--I suppose those narrower, deeper baskets may explain the some of the popularity of the La Spaziales as well; I have certainly read that their forgiveness factor is attributed to that same thing. In spite of my defense of upgrading to higher-end grinders, I would give the same advice as you to the OP. No reason to upgrade until you are unsatisfied with the results you get. Life is short, but it's not that short. I would spend at least a few weeks with the DC and the Rocky before upgrading, unless it were just terrible going with the Rocky.