I have a Silenzio that works great with my Elizabeth for my daily espresso, but I often need to make coffee for guests and my Capresso grinder bit the dust. In reality I'd love a second grinder that would work for coffee as well as espresso bc then I could keep decaf beans in it and just change the setting from espresso to coarser for coffee. My coffee preference is French press, but I figure that coarse probably isn't feasible regardless.

But if there are any grinder options (that don't cost as much as a Niche or DF64, given it's a 2nd grinder) that could easily switch from drip coffee settings to espresso, I'd love to learn about them. I know the Sette 30 or 270 will work, my last grinder was a 270 altho I only used it for espresso. But I'm just wondering if there are any other options that aren't so loud and are a bit more reliable as far as the gearbox etc. or if either of those really do make the most sense. Thanks!

Are you willing to hand grind? That's the best way (maybe the only way) to get a grinder that works well for all brew methods without breaking the bank. A good quality hand grinder will work quickly and easily for brewed coffee, and have easy and repeatable adjustments that allow for switching between brew methods. My Kinu M47 grinds 18g for espresso in 30 to 45 seconds. Check out 1ZPresso, Kinu, and Comandante just to name a few. YouTubers such as James Hoffmann and Lance Hedrick have in-depth video comparisons of hand grinders that may give you some ideas.

Thanks for those suggestions. Unfortunately I have a significant issue with my wrist on my dominant hand and it hurts a lot if it gets any twisting motion or pressure. I had originally ruled out a hand grinder for that reason but perhaps that was short sighted. Cranking something in just a circle motion actually wouldn't be an issue, unless a lot of force is also needed. When you use yours do you have to really exert a lot of pressure when you're turning it, or does that depend on how fast you're going?

My Kinu requires a lot of force for espresso, less force for brewed coffee.

You might consider getting a brew-only electric grinder. That will be much cheaper than one that is also espresso-capable.

That's a thought about the DF64. I already single dose so that wouldn't be an issue. The one thing that had deterred me from going in that direction when I landed on the Silenzio was that from reading about the DF64 on other forums it seemed to be a grinder that involved more tinkering and modifications, and I'm not particularly mechanically inclined. Wonder if that's not actually the case?