Hi all,
I am hoping to get some advice etc on obtaining my first coffee machine.
There seems to be precious little out there in the way of reviews of machines (not that I could find, anyway!), and living in Charters Towers (west from Townsville, Qld) makes it hard to go to shops to talk to people in the know.
I initially started off thinking of buying a pod machine, but having had some friends who have bought them I was not impressed with the quality of the coffee - more 'instant' than 'cafe' tasting to me and my wife.
As we would only be having a couple of cups a day, I was hoping not to have to spend too much - under the $500 - I almost fell off my chair when I first started looking at machines/prices! From what I have read here, it appears that fresh beans and a quality grinder seem almost more important than the machine itself? Anyway, the majority of the time I would only be making two cups at a time, apart from the odd dinner party.
I found a site (Coffee for Connoisseurs) that recommended the Rancilio Silva as the best value for money machine, with the Sunbeam EM6900 a close second, but this info appeared to be several years old.
Looking on the net, the Rancilio seems to be around the $500, then I would need another $200odd for a grinder - which gets up to the $700ish? Then I ran across the Philips Saeco Intelia HD8753-23 for just over $700 with inbuilt grinder! Is this better value for money??
I am now really confused - without reviews to go by, it makes knowing what I should buy and how much I will need to spend very hard to work out.
If anyone can offer some advice, it would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers!
I am hoping to get some advice etc on obtaining my first coffee machine.
There seems to be precious little out there in the way of reviews of machines (not that I could find, anyway!), and living in Charters Towers (west from Townsville, Qld) makes it hard to go to shops to talk to people in the know.
I initially started off thinking of buying a pod machine, but having had some friends who have bought them I was not impressed with the quality of the coffee - more 'instant' than 'cafe' tasting to me and my wife.
As we would only be having a couple of cups a day, I was hoping not to have to spend too much - under the $500 - I almost fell off my chair when I first started looking at machines/prices! From what I have read here, it appears that fresh beans and a quality grinder seem almost more important than the machine itself? Anyway, the majority of the time I would only be making two cups at a time, apart from the odd dinner party.
I found a site (Coffee for Connoisseurs) that recommended the Rancilio Silva as the best value for money machine, with the Sunbeam EM6900 a close second, but this info appeared to be several years old.
Looking on the net, the Rancilio seems to be around the $500, then I would need another $200odd for a grinder - which gets up to the $700ish? Then I ran across the Philips Saeco Intelia HD8753-23 for just over $700 with inbuilt grinder! Is this better value for money??
I am now really confused - without reviews to go by, it makes knowing what I should buy and how much I will need to spend very hard to work out.

If anyone can offer some advice, it would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers!

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