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The New La Marzocco SO Project

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  • Martial_Monkey
    replied
    Re: The New La Marzocco SO Project

    Terry Z has posted some images of the current prototype on his blog

    Leave a comment:


  • yeeza
    replied
    Re: The New La Marzocco SO Project

    Originally posted by 7B6E646A6E66620F0 link=1252577198/3#3 date=1252586083
    When I was at LM in Florence in June they said it was likely to be another 12-18 months away
    Yeah, Guido said production would start around April next year.

    Ill write up a a bit more when a can find some time. Great night though.

    Leave a comment:


  • takeaim
    replied
    Re: The New La Marzocco SO Project

    When I was at LM in Florence in June they said it was likely to be another 12-18 months away

    Originally posted by 362F393B5A0 link=1252577198/2#2 date=1252584095
    Originally posted by 5974757E64796469100 link=1252577198/0#0 date=1252577198
    cant believe LM are actually hatching this one in Sydney!
    The invitation says "yet to be released on the market," so I dont know if this is the actual launch, in the sense that Im not sure that you can yet buy this machine and have it delivered to you next week.  I think that its more that Guido, the MD of LM Italy, is actually down here for a visit, so they brought the machine along.  Yeeza is at the event and Im sure will fill us all in on that shortly.

    Leave a comment:


  • luca
    replied
    Re: The New La Marzocco SO Project

    Originally posted by 5974757E64796469100 link=1252577198/0#0 date=1252577198
    cant believe LM are actually hatching this one in Sydney!
    The invitation says "yet to be released on the market," so I dont know if this is the actual launch, in the sense that Im not sure that you can yet buy this machine and have it delivered to you next week. I think that its more that Guido, the MD of LM Italy, is actually down here for a visit, so they brought the machine along. Yeeza is at the event and Im sure will fill us all in on that shortly.

    Originally posted by 5D71626479717C4F5D7F7E7B7569100 link=1252577198/1#1 date=1252578082
    People were able to get a short play with it at the SCAA earlier this year.
    Heres my quick blog entry after I played with it at SCAA: http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2009/04/usa-trip-09-days-9-through-whatever.html

    I have to confess that I displayed pretty poor form and kept on "hogging" it. The dudes at LM set up three robur Es next to the machine and lots of great roasters donated a bunch of different coffee to be played around with, so there was no shortage of interesting stuff happening. I grabbed a bunch of espresso from all of the usual suspects, but I kept on returning to the LM booth. Im not the only one that thought that the LM booth stole the show.

    Originally posted by 5974757E64796469100 link=1252577198/0#0 date=1252577198
    anyone else wondering about the actual specs of this machine? Love the paddle groups but not what Ive seen of the styling, and want to know what the selling points are  ;D
    It might have changed from Atlanta, but at Atlanta it had a boiler per group, stainless steel portafilters and non-stick steam wands. I think that all of the new LMs (for Australia, at least), are coming with a vacuum breaker on the steam valve, so it probably would have had that as well. Of course, the big deal was obviously the paddle groups. Its worthwhile noting that these paddle groups allowed you to change the flow through the group steplessly; ie, move it a little and you change the flow a little. This is in stark contrast with every other commercially available paddle group, which is essentially a three position switch. You can also program the pressure profile into the machine and just play that back, rather than having to do it manually. From memory, I think that the machine was supposed to have three tiny pumps in it (presumably what they were developing for the GS3), so it may be that the lever simply controls the pumps output directly. Programmability could obviously be extremely useful in a cafe setting - if you look at people using their paddle group machines now, most tend to just use the paddle as a switch and let the gicleur take care of the preinfusion.

    Of course, all of the technowizzardry is useless if it doesnt contribute something to the cup or to the ease of delivering a good quality product to the cup. From a users perspective, I thought that the machine was great. The LM steam wand and GB5 steam valve setup are my favourite on the market and I was very happy to see that that seemed to have basically been kept. Fit and finish arent really that relevant, seeing as the machine is in a prototype body, but they were up to LMs usual excellent standard. Bigger paddle handles would have been nicer - easier to grab. One criticism of the GB5 and FB80 is that the shots arent as visible as they would be on a machine with exposed groups and if that was a problem for you with the GB5 and FB80, you would obviously think the same of the prototype.

    Naturally, I did play around with different brew pressure profiles, etc, and I dont have enough experience with it to generalise, save to say that doing things differently can certainly make a difference in the cup. When I walked up to the machine and pulled my first shot, it started to gush and it was instantly clear that my dose was too low for that grind setting. Intuitively, I backed up on the paddle, the flow rate reduced and my gusher turned into a normal shot that tasted about right. The thought that came to mind was "Toto, I dont think were in Kansas any more."

    Cheers,
    Luca

    PS. I didnt post this picture up on the blog, but it was pretty funny to see the sweet paddle group linea being used as nothing more than a sink to wash up espresso cups!



    Leave a comment:


  • Martial_Monkey
    replied
    Re: The New La Marzocco SO Project

    Dont think much has been announced. I expect we will know more after La Marzoccos "Out of the Box". People were able to get a short play with it at the SCAA earlier this year. Other then that not much is known - except the case it was in was not its final styling (looked like a fb80 case to me).

    Leave a comment:


  • Identity
    started a topic The New La Marzocco SO Project

    The New La Marzocco SO Project

    anyone else wondering about the actual specs of this machine? Love the paddle groups but not what Ive seen of the styling, and want to know what the selling points are ;D

    cant believe LM are actually hatching this one in Sydney!
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