this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Why would a Strada be worse for dialling in than a Decent? Surely that's a grinder issue, not a machine issue?
The Strada and Decent are very different machines, the Strada by comparison is very basic but can take a punishing workload more suited to a proper cafe, the Decent is better suited to someone who wants to play around. Granted you can buy the more expensive Decents that have a higher duty cycle but even then, for longevity and back to back high volume workload my money would by on the Strada.
If you plan on regularly (more than once a week) switching beans and properly dialing them in till you hit that god shot rather than just acceptable or good level, then that means a lot of shots in a short space of time. If that's what you are into then the Strada is probably the better bet, although even then its massive overkill vs. a Linea Mini or similar. Personally I would rather spend the thousands saved on buying more grinders, the flexibility of having three high end grinders, one for clarity, one for body, one for pour over, without having to swap burrs and re-calibrate would far out weigh any benefit as a home user to having a Strada.
The Decent on the other hand may lose in duty cycle vs. the Strada but it has many additional features that for a home user who only changes beans every few weeks rather than multiple times a week and isn't chasing daily god shots. Parameter based programs on the Decent allow you to work around actual pressure (rather than just flow) and temperature (as it blends hot and cold water, rather than manipulating boiler temp) so the Decent can adjust the program during the shot for you if the beans aren't quite ground right to give you a cup that's somewhere between acceptable and good. When you do not have the time, beans, or money to waste chucking less than optimal shots, that is incredibly useful. Couple that with the ability to mimic other famous machines signature shot styles and the ability to develop your own or just download extra ones and auto play them.
I would wager its that day to day utility that is going to be more useful for more people rather than the ability to do a dozen shots back to back hour after hour with little temperature variance. Sure, some people will want that in a home setting, but outside of youtubers doing coffee reviews, who needs it?
So it's not about dialling it, it's about whether you're happy with a less than perfect shot and a machine that covers it up 😅
I'm currently on a E61 machine with a EG-1, so no stranger to dialling in and getting the perfect shot. The GS3 is likely the next real step up, but the Strada offers the consistent electronic profiling that other machines lack (so surely you could have the same profiles that the decent offers?)
The decent is an odd beast without it's boilers and with it's strange noisy pump, and it's old school UI that'll only age more with time. I'm super curious about using one, and the nerd in me loves the sound of all that data and graphing, but it just seems like a toy compared to a big sturdy boiler machine. Id be interested to try one for a week, but I don't even know if it would make a better cup than my E61.
Ideally I'd want everything that a GS3 offers, combined with the decent nerdiness... And there's not many of those around. The Sanremo YOU, or the Synesso ES-1 look like interesting contenders.
I think you are missing what I am saying about the effort it requires to get a perfect shot, day in day out as its a moving target on any grinder and machine combo. You cant dial in the perfect shot today and hit it first time tomorrow, well you might but then you should buy power ball tickets immediately as its almost the same amount of luck. Any commercial setting of repute should be checking and adjusting the dial in during the day as it will need tweaking. If you aren't tweaking every day with multiple discard shots then you aren't getting the absolute best from your coffee, and are actually where most people are.
What I am saying is despite what a lot of people say on the internet about dialing in that perfect shot they aren't doing it every morning at 6am when they have to leave for work in half an hour. At 6am I am quite happy with a shot somewhere between acceptable and good, which is more than enough for the effort required. When I get new beans on a lazy Sunday morning then is the time for me to be doing my dozen or so dial in shots, as that's when I actually have the time to chase a god shot. This is about the usage profile for what I would expect the average person spending thousands on coffee gear for home use to be like.
As I mentioned before, the Decent makes a number of design choices that limits it in other areas (such as pump type) in order to gain proper temperature and pressure control rather than inferior (cheaper implementation) or much more complex (expensive implementation) temperature control in the boiler or flow control pretending to be pressure control at a cheaper price point (and yes I really want flow and pressure control). Even though the Strada has proper pressure control its actually a bit finicky in implementation compared the Decent, as the Strada has its pump cycling and odd behavior for ramps/holds. The Decent despite the interface you don't seem to like is actually a lot easier to setup and its a lot easier to just download and go with one of the many preexisting profile. Its also far easier to debug what exactly when on with the shot with the data it gives you.
Buying what is a commercial espresso machine that is capable of doing a high volume of shots per day for years is just overkill. Its like driving round in a school bus because once every three years you need to transport 12 people at once. Or buying the biggest baddest impact wrench on the market when you just need to put in some deck bolts. There are better products suited to the home user that aren't duty cycle first and foremost but offer more usable functionality. Its typical all gear no idea approach, spending the most must give you the best result.
I like the look of the Sanremo YOU, but fiddling with the screen and buttons on the group head for proper in depth shot customisation fills me with loathing, you need the space to get proper graphs. If I am going to use an app then I am back where I started with the Decent. I haven't seen the Synesso ES-1 in depth yet but initially the screen looks too small for me for that distance as it looks like an old iphone size?
Regarding better shot from any machine, the machine is completely irrelevant once it can hold a stable pressure and temperature for a single shot if you are going all out for a god shot after spending ages properly dialing in using the very best grinder, burr set, water, and beans for whatever you want out of your espresso machine. Average coffee nerd doing their usual 6am shot on any high end grinder and machine will be out performed by somebody else using the same grinder, better water, beans, technique on a much cheap e61 that can do the stability I mentioned. Far too much is given to the high end machines for improving quality when they far behind grinders, which are behind beans, water, and technique for espresso quality.