Guess I will bite the bullet

I've been using Pharos for over three years - mostly with something that any non-Scandinavian would call light roasts.

It hasn't been a problem for me, but since I got the Niche Zero five months ago I must confess that I have been happier to make more and more espressos/cappuccinos per day. It makes a little difference if you only make one/two shots per day, but if you go beyond that it'll slowly start to get at you. Or maybe not, it depends on the physical abilities of oneself.

Quality wise the two are very similar, so it is only up to the decision if you like hand-grinding. I'd say it's a safe bet going with the Niche. You won't be thinking back whether you should have taken the different route. With the Pharos, there is always a small risk that you'd start thinking "what if I had spent a few huns more....?"

For the record, a few of my friends have not been too happy to grind light roasts with the Pharos. My wife also doesn't use it although she is happy to use the Lido (for coarser grinds) every day.

With that said, I'm still going to keep both my Niche and Pharos. Pharos won't need any electronics so there's a plus to be considered.

For those that did not see my other thread, could you report here if you are using a precision basket? (IMS, VST, Decent). I had horrible results with my decent, I switched back to stock and all of a sudden everything is fine...

20g VST on my Silvia and all is well. Even squeaking out drinkable stale I could never dream of pulling with my Vario.

Received an email this morning, "Your order has been dispatched." My Niche Zero is on its way!!! Scheduled for delivery on April 3rd. (Ordered February 15th)

liquidmetal wrote:For those that did not see my other thread, could you report here if you are using a precision basket? (IMS, VST, Decent). I had horrible results with my decent, I switched back to stock and all of a sudden everything is fine...

VST 15g basket.

Interesting. I'm not hearing anything bad about the other precisions, interested to hear from the guy who has decent baskets too.

Using Decent 20g basket, just pull 3 consecutive shots, 15g in, NZ setting at 12.5, all 3 shots stop at 24 secs with 30g out. My NZ has been consistence with both my Decent and Lelit stock baskets.

Thanks for making an account to let us know that! I'm now worried again that something is off with my grinder...

Do you do anything special with the preshot prep? WDT/shaking?

I'm not using a Decent basket, but using a Pullman Filtration 17-19g basket (still a precision basket). Been doing ~18g in and ~37g out in around 25-29 seconds at grind setting 20. I've tried both shaking and WDT in cup and in basket. I didn't like shaking as was weird with my workflow. I ended up getting the cup stuck in the basket due to the ridge on the cup (lol). I tried doing a light stir in the cup and full WDT in the basket as well. No real taste difference, but getting a bit of spritzing, which I didn't have before with my LIDO-E. Been pretty consistent though.