VST baskets have more hole/open area than "traditional" baskets. So they flow faster. The VST use-case was/is so that you could grind finer to increase EY on machines without flow control, which would otherwise choke on grinds that fine. This was especially good for cafes where they not only don't have machines with flow control, but they don't have time to pull 60-90s shots with constant monitoring by the barista. BUT some of us in the hobby have machines with that kind of capability, and are willing to take the time to monitor the shots for the whole pull and make flow tweaks based on what we are seeing. Many of us in that category have shelved our VST's in favor of other high quality baskets with a slower (more traditional) flow rate. I have EPNWs and Breville's. For precision wonks, I have some microscope photos of the Breville compared to VST and Synesso baskets. This is from eight years ago mind. Synesso might have upped there game. The point was that the Breville baskets have very uniform and precise hole size and spacing. I do not have micro-photos of EPNW baskets however. While they won't break the bank, Breville baskets have gone up in price and there's also shipping. My EPNW14 was had for about a quarter or third the price of a new Breville basket after accounting for shipping.

Since moving to flow control, I can't remember the last time I used my VST for actual espresso.

I do keep it around nevertheless. And I actually use it when I make "single serve drip". For that I put a paper filter disc in the bottom of the VST, do a filter grind, put in 11-12g of coffee (18g VST). And then I set the needle valve on my machine to the drip rate that I want, and drip 190g or so into a 6oz teacup. There will be no pressure on the gauge as this is true drip, (not a choked puck), being made with an espresso machine capable of flowing at a slow drip flow.

-Peter

Chris nice shots of the E&B, and others. Tell us more about the E&B, not familiar and haven't seen IMS do spot welding like that?

EDIT - apparently E&B is the lab of IMS according to some internet reports.

Chris, btw have you ever compared the IMS nanoquartz shower screens to the identical screen without the coating.

My EPNW 14 gram ridgeless arrived. While the EPNW appears to have the same hole pattern, is NOT the same as the Slayer since the EPNW is completely flat on the bottom. If I tap the Slayer on its ridge, it resonates, and the EPNW doesn't move. That all SAID, I understand Slayer, since the Cimballi investment, has changed baskets so I have no idea what they sell now.

I will compare these baskets over the next few days. I am thinking I will not be able to see much difference with the identical hole patterns.

Also I spoke to someone using the E&B Superfine shower screen and he really thought it was a good one.

Some interesting quotes from E&B's own literature- This is fascinating to me and really haven't seen it discussed much here. The Shower Screen in particular is interesting and is available at CaffeWerks.

Standar Filter

The E&B LAB Filter is inspired by the most widely used commercial filters, it is available in five heights to allow the selection use the desired coffee dose. The filter has a cylindrical profile with a perforated area of 49 mm and 715 holes.

Nanoquartz - note nothing said on performance of making espresso

The E&B LAB filter NT is the evolution of the E&B LAB filters. Compared to the standard filter, it has a Nanoquartz coating. The advantage of this technology is greater anti-adherence that facilitates the coffee cake removal from the filter.In addition, this technology improves filter surface cleaning making it more antibacterial and easy to clean.

Superfine

The Super-Fine filter comes from the idea of creating a filter with a higher filtration power than standards. Usually the filtration is between 250 and 350 μm.The super-fine filter has a filtration capacity of 170 μm. To achieve this performance, we combined a 170 μm membrane to IMS holing technology. In this way, it is possible to obtain a cleaner cup exalting the acidic component of the coffee.

Superfine Shower Screen

With the new showers, E&B LAB has improved the most popular IMS competition showers. To do this, E&B LAB has combined the technology of Photo-etched, nanotechnology with IMS know-how gained over 70 years in the creation of showers. All of this has led to the creation of a range of a reinforced shower screen with a photo-etched membrane and Nanoquartz coating. The main feature of the coating is the antiadhesion features that simplyfies the cleaning, but above all it creates a shower effect that moisturizes the coffee puck, avoiding channeling through the coffee puck and improving coffee extraction. The reinforcement guarantees the non-deformability of the shower even when the coffee is over- dosed, maintaining the flatness over time.

The bottoms of many baskets bow out over time and become slightly concave / convex. My EPNW HQ 14 is about 2 years old and it rocks when placed on its bottom on a flat surface. It is not flat bottomed any more.