To me, the end result is the same rather it's e61 or not. Maybe a few minor details in the flavor profile and body... But very minor. In my opinion, it's more about the hobby of it and what machine appeals to you to get where you want to go. But they all get you to the same place.

I have a mini, but I would love to have a faema classic also. That would be cool if they had a home edition with a small boiler for fresh water and make it steel.

linuxAndJavaScript wrote:To me, the end result is the same rather it's e61 or not.

Its funny. I moved from an E61 Brewtus to a Vivaldi II and while my shot quality went up, I do miss the E61. Mostly because of all the cool stuff you can get in 58mm vs 53mm.

For me 58mm is non-negotiable and is a must. Even the repositioning of the PF ears on a lever remains an obstacle for change, especially with the lever's risks of injury during a moment's inattention or a guest or child just fooling around not realizing what they're doing.

With E61 on a smart plug + a flow control device, the benefits of a software driven Decent machine seem less and less except for those who's primary passion is tinkering with coffee. I really, really like coffee.

But it's hard to beat the simplicity of this setup. I can control it from Siri, I can time the machine to warm up so it's fully warmed before I wake (the energy cost difference is inconsequential - WLL did a video on this. Warm up is the "expensive" part at about 6 cents, and every hour thereafter is about 1 cent, so turning the machine on an hour or two early is only a couple cents. Which is $7/year @ 2 hours of extra machine on time every day.

Flow control profiles on the Decent are super cool, but other than the joy of tinkering, most days I just want minimal fuss coffee ASAP and a good flow control profile isn't that hard to repeat and understand, and while you can get very precise and fancy with a Decent, the basics - a long pre-infusion, slow ramp up, and sometimes a slow ramp down - seem to give excellent results most of the time.

So, yeah. I could spend more on a complicated computer-esque espresso machine (and maybe someday I will, just for kicks), but as part of a simple daily routine... KISS. The e61 with Flow Control and a $20 smart plug is pretty bullet proof, super simple, and gets you way (WAY) more than 80% of the way there.

dsc106 wrote:With E61 on a smart plug + a flow control device, the benefits of a software driven Decent machine seem less and less except for those who's primary passion is tinkering with coffee.

You bring up a good point. Not only is the "standard" portafilter size nice, there are also a lot cooler add-on options for the e61.