I would like to upgrade my coffee gear (especially the "coffee"-making part).

At the moment I evaluate between the 9Barista stove top and the La Pavoni Europiccola.

Why I like the 9Barista:
- It is very small and would fit my hand grinder I use at the moment (but also plan to upgrade)
- The amount of mechanical engineering

Why I like the La Pavoni:
- Still quite compact with full control over pretty much every parameter of making espresso
- Pre-infusion capability of a lever machine

Why I don't like the La Pavoni:
- Steep learning curve with difficult temperature control
- Small basket (51mm if I remember correctly)

Why I don't like the 9Barista:
- I assume temperature control is also pretty difficult
- I guess it takes longer to pull two shots than with the La Pavoni

Any recommendations which machine you would prefer? Any other machine which falls in between the two (in terms of size and cost)?

The Cafelat Robot has a large following, including yours truly. It has a full size basket that also serves as the brewing chamber. It also enables full control of preinfusion, it has a fair forgiveness factor toward dose and grind variations and with a good quality beans and grinder makes darn good espresso.

The Flair 58 seems to be getting a lot of press. Might want to check out one of their models. Some discussion here:
Flair 58

Thank you so much for your replies.

To be honest, I think both of them are overpriced in comparison to the La Pavoni Europiccola.

And I also don't like the additional step of handling hot / boiling water

The Pavoni is a great machine as long as you have a thermocouple to monitor the temperature. You can get a very affordable one (and tons of other awesome upgrades) on this site: https://coffee-sensor.com/

I freakin' love my 9Barista. I think there's been one day over the last year I haven't used it. The shots are remarkably consistent and very tasty. It does take awhile to pull a couple of shots but honestly, I'll just do the dishes or something while I wait so it's really not a big deal. As far as temperature control, yeah, there's not a whole lot you can do about it outside of raising or lowering your stove's flame. For me, it's been the best investment I made since I started the espresso journey though.

Oh, and I don't know if this helps (or just adds more to decide on) but this purty-lookin' machine just popped up and is going live on Kickstarter next week:

https://www.ogadget.com/x/xbar

I put down the reservation because of course, I need yet another coffee gadget...my wife's gonna kill me...

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with the 9Barista @kruzilla!

I guess in the end I will have to buy both, the 9Barista and the La Pavoni!

The XBar looks interesting and certainly very capable, but it also requires the additional step of heating water and pouring it into a basket which I am not a fan of. But that's just me.

Lol! You're very welcome!

I didn't notice the part about having to heat up the water on the Xbar but using a kettle would be quick. I wonder how the heat retention will be though. I have a Leverpresso which is decent in a pinch but it loses a lot of heat pretty much immediately which is irritating.