New Nuova Simonelli Appia

[Marshall]

There was a lot of buzz in Charlotte about the Nuova Simonelli Aurelia HX and its impressive temperature stability. When I asked at the NS booth about a "home" version, two salesmen took me over to the new Appia, which they were unveiling at the show. This was a single group version, which runs on 110v current and will not be available in the U.S. until the fall. I was told the MSRP will be $3,700 without the "Smart Wand" and a few hundred more with it. The salespeople swore it had the same pre-infusion and temperature stability engineering as the Aurelia. Here is a PDF brochure: http://www.nuovasimonelliusa.com/images/appia_1_group_bochure.pdf.

Here is a promotional brochure for the Aurelia: http://www.nuovasimonelliusa.com/images/Aurelia%20Promo.pdf. And a bigger one with pretty pictures: http://www.nuovasimonelliusa.com/images/MONOGRAFIA%20AURELIA.pdf. The 2-group Aurelia, by the way, starts at a $6,250 MSRP.

Can anyone tell from the specs whether they were correct? If so, the Appia could be an interesting high-end challenger to the $4,500+ GS3. Any other comment?

Marshall

[another_jim]

This may be the swansong for the "old school" espresso machine: huge group, huge HX, huge boiler, and lots of engineering refinements gets you a rock stable machine along with brew temperature profile that can be tweaked (the Aurelia at the SCAA was set up for straight line, but apparently, one can swap out the restrictors at the cold water inlet, the thermosyphon supply and return to get the group and HX temperature to different values and thereby achieve a humped profile too.

If the rumors are to be believed, this is the machine that spanked the GB5s in the WBC stability tests.

The drawback is that changing the temperature of the machine will entail changing out the restrictors on the HX and thermosyphon, along with the boiler pressure. The machine is apparently designed to do this quite simply (i.e without a lot of disassembly). But it's hardly a frontpanel adjustment. For a cafe doing one blend, it's a fabulous machine assuming it's reliable; for changing blends or tuning the shot profile, it doesn't seem a great choice.

[Abe Carmeli]

the Appia could be an interesting high-end challenger to the $4,500+ GS3. Any other comment?

Oh, how I wish it were so, sigh. Here is the main problem with the Appia in a home setting: It is practically impossible to change its temperature without taking out your tool box, opening up the machine and reconfiguring the mixing valve. And even then, small adjustments of temps are hard to come by. Works perfectly for a coffee shop which uses one blend basically with set temperature. A home user that changes blends weekly, experiment with coffee, etc. this is a big drawback.

[cannonfodder]

I still dream of a Speedster, but a GS3 would do in a pinch.

[luca]

... do y'all think that it would be possible to retrofit a variable thermosyphon into it? (Like the one in the original e-61)

Even with a variable thermosyphon, I agree that changing temperatures would still be a PITA. The likes of the Synesso, PIDed LMs and the GS3 are just plain spoiling everybody!

The lever for steam is cool.

These machines certainly look quite promising. And remember that NS also rebrands the conti valerio grinders ...

Cheers,

Luca