I haven't seen much on this topic, but I wanted to get some feedback on where the Pharos sits in the grinder hierarchy. For context, here's where my setup stands: I have a PID Silvia and a Rocky, which is used for drip and espresso. I am satisfied with my drip, but want to improve the espresso. My choices are to either replace the Rocky with a Vario, or to supplement the Rocky with a Pharos. I typically only make espresso on the weekend, so the extra fuss is not important to me, and I never make espresso for large groups.

Are the two close enough in grind quality that the Vario is preferred for ergonomics, or is the Pharos really on another level (K10, or Robur)?

Peter

Did you read the great review and owner experience thread? This might help answer your question.

Owner experience with Pharos manual coffee grinder by Orphan Espresso

Yes, I've read the majority of that thread, but most of the posts seem to focus on either how to improve the grinder or how to fix it if it arrived out of alignment. I was just hoping for a different thread on relative taste & comparison now that people have had them for a while and maybe broken them in a bit more.

Peter

In my opinion, the quality I get from the Pharos is better than what I get from my 68mm flat burrs (SJ, MDX, RR45).

I'd say it's a Robur class grinder - The shots are at least as good as those from my Fiorenzato Doge Conico, and also sligthly less bitter.

The Pharos is the titan grinder bargain of the year - Go get it

We did a comparison between the K10, Pharos and a large planar Macap M7 last fall, with the results here. Short story - the Pharos is a great grinder, comparable to other big conicals (K10, Robur, etc.). Ergonomics leave a lot to be desired, but this comes from the perspective of someone whose first first extended exposure to a hand grinder was this thing.

If you want the best bang for the buck and are willing to put up with some significant ergonomic and grinds retrieval issues, it's a fantastic grinder.

I'm curious to see how the OE LIDO (under development) ranks, once it's released.

I thought the LIDO was just a cupping grinder, didn't know it did espresso.

If it is a great press and/or cupping grinder...it would stand to reason that it could be pretty good at espresso too. Most of the time grinders have a hard time with consistent coarser grinds and espresso usually isn't a problem if the burrs are stable and it's stepless or doesn't have huge steps.

I guess we will see though. I wouldn't mind having another manual grinder as backup to my preciso.

I'm using the hario mini this week and the only problem for espresso is the huge steps and time it takes to grind. It doesn't do too good on the press side of things because I didn't retrofit it with the OE kit for coarse.

I would compare the Pharos grind quality to the big commercial conicals, its in a class of its own compared to something like the Rocky or Vario.

I personally havent found the ergonomics a problem at all, i hold it against my hip and have no issue with that aspect, its quick and quiet. (obviously!)

The grounds retention is no longer an issue with the funnel setup, i basically get out what I put in.

As I am a Lever user I love the fact that my coffee making routine involves no noisy motor driven machinery, but even if I used a HX or similar I think I would stick with the Pharos, for under $300 its crazy value, to get similar grind quality you would have to spend nearly 10 times as much.