I've been a serious coffee enthusiast since the early '90s. With the advent of the internet and the wealth of information available, I became passionate about espresso and grew dissatisfied with the like of Peets and the local Italian "clubs" / cafes that I often frequented. I happened to drive out to the Mid-West for a conference and found a cafe in Minneapolis that had a roaster in the shop - and the owner was both the roastmaster and the barista. after picking his brain for a few minutes, and watching his jaw drop at the questions I asked, I was determined to up my game and make my own coffee! My very first machine was a Starbucks espresso machine - even though it turned out to be a dual wall basket, completely unsuited to what I wanted to do, it did have the ability to produce steam in the quantity needed to have me for the first time making real latte foam! I was using a hand grinder I had for many years that I had purchased at a garage sale, and the mess that was generated making coffee (I won't credit myself with the word cappuccino, but it was already a superior beverage than either Starbucks or the local cafes or restaurants could produce owing to the freshly roasted quality coffee I was using, and my combining beans from different regions to taste different notes - my wife was blown away!) was unacceptable. Thus, my journey took me to Zabar's on the upper west side with the thought of getting an electric grinder that my portafilter could go right into. The grinders were more expensive and of poorer quality, than I had hoped. But, they had on display the first Saeco superautomatico I had ever seen. (This is before Starbucks incorporated these into their business model) Even though 400 bucks seemed way beyond my budget, the brew extracted was quite delicious, and the push a button and beans instantly transformed to espresso, and the puck neatly delivered into a box mystified and delighted me! (Plus it had a far superior boiler to my little machine, and made pretty darn good foam!)

Now, enter the 21st century, and many, many quality roasters (with roast dates stamped on the bags) and cafes with extraordinarily skilled baristas so common that I have an app for cafes that produce ambrosia in New York, and, when I travel, a quick Google search for "latte art near me," will usually direct me to such a place, my desire to make my own rivaled my need for domestic tranquillity and I spent what I thought was an extravagant amount of money on the Rancilio Rocky and Silvia. Not only was I terribly disappointed, but I found the whole "temperature surfing" thing to be a bore, and kind of gave up, satisfying myself with creating different blends, and producing consistently tastier milk-based beverages than all but a few cafes with my toy (yet another superautomatico!) I even tried adding a PID to Silvia to no avail. The idea of spending 1500 plus dollars on a grinder just to go back to wrestling with Ms. Silvia was not exciting me, but the advent of a threeish to fiveish hundred dollar grinder that authors I respect were excited about got the bug going in me again!

Now, I have to say that my dreams were infected with the idea of having a machine like the Marzocco G3 to learn on, but there is no way I could spend 7 grand on a machine (let alone a grinder to match) and stay married! So, after looking seriously into getting the Sette, and not liking everything I'm reading, I ran across the La Spaziale Vivaldi II that, coupled with the Ceado E 37 S could make my dream come true at less than half what my G3 / Mahlkhonig K 43 would cost!

Now, that's a hell of a long-winded buildup to my point! Despite my excitement, and enthusiasm for the La Spaziale, (the dream is more my cup of mud than the Vivaldi, despite the added expense) I'm more than a little concerned about the 53 mm portafilter. I've had it demonstrated to me how much it affects shot quality poor tamping that results not in channeling but different levels of compactness in the puck, and overextracting the top of the puck, and underextracting the bottom! Since it's my goal to get good enough to incorporate Scott Rao's teaching to produce consistent sweet shots - I've worked with skilled baristas that still pull, to me, somewhat sour shots although far superior to anything I can do!

The thing is I'm a retired cable splicer and not just any splicer but a fault locating or "galvo" splicer, and a true craftsman, and I'm confident that barista is a lower craft, well within my abilities, but I need the proper tools! I can swing the cost for this setup,( and can stay married!) But it would ruin me if it turned out to be another Rancilio debacle! Would greatly appreciate some help with this decision - I'm ready to pull the trigger on this!

I've owned a Spaziale S1V1 for a decade. IMHO the only disadvantage of the 53mm grouphead is lack of choice in aftermarket baskets. There is no reason to be especially concerned about channeling. Puck prep (dose, grind, distribution, tamp) is important... but no more so with the Spaz than any other machine of this caliber. It's a fantastic espresso machine.

However, pressure profiling is the rage these days. You may wish to consider machines such as the Lelit Bianca (which is getting great reviews on H-B).

Two others I would consider: the Decent DE1+ which is currently out of stock but looks to be in the ballpark of the S1V1. Secondly I would take a look at the Breville Dual Boiler. It's very temperature stable, having a headed grouphead (I believe scace testing put it at a similar level to a LM GS3). It should be the equal in function to the S1V1, but with the benefit of being able to mod it simply to perform manual pressure profiling. It's also less than half the price of the Decent or La Spaziale.

Grinder-wise, have you looked at the Niche Zero?

RapidCoffee wrote:I've owned a Spaziale S1V1 for a decade. IMHO the only disadvantage of the 53mm grouphead is lack of choice in aftermarket baskets. There is no reason to be especially concerned about channeling. Puck prep (dose, grind, distribution, tamp) is important... but no more so with the Spaz than any other machine of this caliber. It's a fantastic espresso machine.

However, pressure profiling is the rage these days. You may wish to consider machines such as the Lelit Bianca (which is getting great reviews on H-B).

Great answer! Wow, the Letit Bianca looks amazing! I effing love the pressure paddle! It's a good five hundred more than the machine I was looking at, and, maybe way over my head! But man! What a machine to learn on! Thank you!

HH wrote:Two others I would consider: the Decent DE1+ which is currently out of stock but looks to be in the ballpark of the S1V1. Secondly I would take a look at the Breville Dual Boiler. It's very temperature stable, having a headed grouphead (I believe scace testing put it at a similar level to a LM GS3). It should be the equal in function to the S1V1, but with the benefit of being able to mod it simply to perform manual pressure profiling. It's also less than half the price of the Decent or La Spaziale.

Grinder-wise, have you looked at the Niche Zero?

Thank you, They both look amazing! I'm a little cautious about brand new tech - I'm really not affluent enough to be on the so-called bleeding edge! Right now I want to go with tried and true. That being said, I'm talking about spending upwards of $3600.00 which isn't chicken feed! I understand that doesn't get me G3 and K43 but I really need something that approaches professional in a home setting. Again, my biggest concern with any of La Speciale's offerings is the 53mm portafilter. I want to stay away from the Breville as there seems to be a lot of talk of failures and needs for modifications - which is something that might be fun down the road, but right now I have my hands full with just learning how to properly pull espresso!

You can make great coffee with the spaz, at least I think I have

Biggest issues for me are the 53mm portafilter which limits your basket choices (I use ims baskets) and makes it harder to shop for tampers and wedge distribution tools (Dennis at kafatek made a levi tamp for me which is great) and the coarser C temperature adjustment

martuney wrote:Thank you, They both look amazing! I'm a little cautious about brand new tech - I'm really not affluent enough to be on the so-called bleeding edge! Right now I want to go with tried and true. That being said, I'm talking about spending upwards of $3600.00 which isn't chicken feed! I understand that doesn't get me G3 and K43 but I really need something that approaches professional in a home setting. Again, my biggest concern with any of La Speciale's offerings is the 53mm portafilter. I want to stay away from the Breville as there seems to be a lot of talk of failures and needs for modifications - which is something that might be fun down the road, but right now I have my hands full with just learning how to properly pull espresso!

Makes sense! I'm sure the La Spaz will be just the ticket, and sounds like a machine which will last you a lifetime.

I had a La Spaziale Vivaldi S1 for over a decade and pulled great shots with it on a Macap M4. I am sure the II's are even better. You might ask around to see if someone near you has one you can go visit.

Chris King in Portland who is famous for precision bike parts makes 53mm tampers. My favorite tamper ever.

Chris King makes tampers? Will wonders never cease, maybe we can get him to show them @ Interbike next year

RapidCoffee wrote:I've owned a Spaziale S1V1 for a decade. IMHO the only disadvantage of the 53mm grouphead is lack of choice in aftermarket baskets. There is no reason to be especially concerned about channeling. Puck prep (dose, grind, distribution, tamp) is important... but no more so with the Spaz than any other machine of this caliber. It's a fantastic espresso machine.

However, pressure profiling is the rage these days. You may wish to consider machines such as the Lelit Bianca (which is getting great reviews on H-B).

I agree wholeheartedly with everything said. I've had my Vivaldi Mini for 10 years and even with some top-end cafes/roasters that rival some of the best in Seattle, Chicago, Vancouver, etc..., I can produce shots on par or better than most. 53mm portafilter diameter is definitely not a limitation except for choices in baskets, tampers, and distribution tools.

Up until the last year, I'd say my shots were better than 90% of the specialty coffee cafes in Calgary. Since then, I've added the BT wedge, IMS precision baskets, and Acaia scale to up my consistency. I can safely say, my shots are consistently better than 99% of the shots I can get in town.

On the grinder side, I've been using a La Cimbali Max Hybrid since I got the Vivaldi Mini. It's a fantastic grinder that produces grind quality that is on par with high end mazzers. It has a rather unique burr design that is similar to a Versalab M3 then any other grinder on the market in that it has a first stage conical burr for breaking up the whole beans, and a second stage set of flat burrs for the actual grinding/cutting to espresso grind. I paid about the same for the Max Hybrid as what people pay for a Sette 270 these days and I'm sure it is way more stable and reliable then a Sette. So bang for buck, it's amazing. The only downer is that every morning, I have to purge about 22g of coffee to ensure I'm pulling shots with fresh grinds and that gets expensive rather quickily and is also a waste of good beans. For this reason, I've decided it's time to explore the single-dosing grinder road. Hopefully, I'll have a Helor Stance Motor to compare against in a few weeks time, plus a Monolith Flat in the spring to add to the mix.

Also, after 10 years, am I tempted to upgrade? Sure but really nothing short of a GS3 MP would really make be feel like I'm upgrading. And even then I'd much rather wait for a Strada EP equivalent of a GS3 (GS3 EP?) before I'd really consider seriously about upgrading from the Vivalid Mini.