My aunt always buys really expensive (multi-thousand dollars) espresso machines but I've only seen her use cheap preground grocery store coffee in it.

Likewise she bought a $6000 HD TV years ago and paid much more per month for HD and for probably the first 5 years was using it with an analog composite connection (which gives the lowest possible quality, worst than analog TV) until some technician came by for a problem and told her.

What is it with people paying 10 times the price for a machine only to use it with media that gives the same results as a machine costing 10 times less?

I guess for the same reason people buy espresso machines to make tea with them

I didn't buy one to make only tea, I want espresso/coffee also. But if it can also make tea through the bypass and prevent me from having to clean a filter each time that will be awesome and save me time. If it doesn't work I'll use the machine just to distribute hot water when I want tea and use a filter in my cup.

You mean like Lavazza?

Family tree goes straight up and is nourished from the shallow end of the gene pool

zin1953 wrote:You mean like Lavazza?

Worst than that, and it was a huge can of preground coffee.

aab1 wrote:What is it with people paying 10 times the price for a machine only to use it with media that gives the same results as a machine costing 10 times less?

They think that a better machine makes better results. They don't understand the difference between a baseband, composite, component, or HD component signal. Hell, I know a lot of people that are in the business of making and distributing video signals that aren't really clear, and there are people every day that ask us what their issue is, and it's usually one of the three M's other than the machine.
I've been quoted (and ridiculed for) saying that the grinder makes espresso, the machine just gets the water hot and pushes it through the grinder's work. And yet, the 'Tips and Techniques' forum rings with questions about their poor results with grocery store pre-ground coffee.
It's marketing married to human nature, plain and simple.

aab1 wrote:What is it with people paying 10 times the price for a machine only to use it with media that gives the same results as a machine costing 10 times less?

They're idiots. Sheep following the herd of marketing.

I was once asked to calibrate and check possible issues on a Schaerer Super-Auto. It was (is) a $10,000 commercial machine like ones used in some chain locations (e.g. Dunkin Donuts). Turns out that I couldn't make any significant adjustments because you need a "supervisor card" that allows access to the programming sections - and must be a Schaerer trained/authorized service technician in order to get the card. I share this story because they were using two month old Dunkin Donuts whole bean coffee that was stored in their giant glass door commercial refrigerator. Where was all this set up? In the lakefront summer home of an individual who has far more money than brains.

"Everyone has a weakness" ~ Achille