The Pharos is a better grinder for espresso than any of the electric grinders you've mentioned. The mini is a downgrade from the Vario in terms of grind quality and an upgrade in terms of insane durability (your grand children might inherit it). The Vario is comparable to the SJ in grind quality, the Pharos is Titan class. The down side to the Pharos is hand grinding, which some have no problem with. I now use my mini as a dedicated drip grinder and the Pharos exclusively for espresso and a 230V RR45 a friend rescued from a restaurant fire (was being discarded because it got wet - a bit of cleaning and fixing wiring and it's back in business) It just sits there looking impressive and has similar grind quality to the mini.

Now have you used all of the equipment that you are commenting on?

baldheadracing wrote:The only unknowns are the new version of the Oscar......

Oscar deserves a line or two - I'm a big fan. The original is very easy to maintain, repair and rebuild. All parts seem to be available from Nuova Simonelli, and the staff at Nuova Distribution in Seattle (their US operations center) have been both very pleasant and very helpful to me (I rebuilt mine last year). You're not opposed to buying used, and nice Oscars appear often on the usual websites as well as local boards. You can probably pick up an average but immediately usable one for $550 - $600, and you'll find one that needs cleaning and some parts for closer to $300. The nicest one in the world shouldn't cost more than about $800.

Oscar 2 looks cool, and it's certainly reasonably priced in Europe - Elektros has it for €528.69 ($597.42 in USD right now). When it hits the US (which is supposed to be soon, but who knows), it'll be hard to resist if it's even a hair under twice that price (a fact that I'm afraid may not be lost on my wife if our Oscar ever dies and a LMLM calls me with its siren song...) I could certainly live with the new model if it makes equally good coffee - better would just be a bonus. To be honest, I'll be fine if my current Oscar outlives me no matter how long that takes.

I say this a lot but you have to make a decision between buying something once and buying something, only to upgrade somewhere down the road. I have a Vario and a Breville DB, am looking to upgrade. It's kind of a hassle to either first sell your old machine and then buy a new one or buy a new one and then sell your old one. I suffer from upgrade-itis :/

I really want to have a good machine that will last me 5+ years so I dont want to get any entry level machines. I could purchase a profitec pro 300 for 1550 or a nuova simonelli oscar for 1290? Between the two i think they would suffice for what i need a machine for. Looking for something that pulls consistent shots and can steam in a decent amount of time as I wont be making more than two doubles at a time. Im willing to spend up to 22-2300 cad for something thatll last

Any thoughts on the vibiemme domobar jr hx? Im heavily swaying on picking up a bdb or domobar jr hx with a vario. I can pick up the bdb or domobar for about 1500 cad brand new w taxes and the vario for 600