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A few misc points ...
Regarding the spacer thing. Obviously you can put a part like a spacer into a machine to reduce the space between the shower screen and the top of the puck, but you can't do anything to increase that height, so it makes good sense that manufacturers would err on the side of having more room between the shower screen and the top of the puck. I remember way back when LM was the WBC sponsor machine in one of the years where they won the tender for another few years, I think one of the things that the technical panel liked was that there was more headspace, so there was more room for the baristas to change dose if they wanted to. The v1.0 machine had a higher shower screen than the 1.1. So every time someone talks about spacers, to make sense out of what they are saying, you need to know if they are on 1.0 or 1.1. Spacers presumably makes a much bigger difference for 1.0 than it does for 1.1.
I am on the 1.1 and spent a few months trying a few different group components to reduce space, etc. I methodically scored a bunch of espresso made with all variables the same, as much as possible, except for the group components. This quickly became quite an unpleasant chore, since it takes a lot of time to throw out shots that aren't within the criteria, record the scores, take refractometer readings, etc. The main reason that people give for liking the spacer is for bigger body and mouthfeel. I expected to experience that, but didn't. Some of the spacer type components resulted in a pretty significant drop in extraction yield, too.
Now in order to make sense of what people are writing about spacers, you also need to know what sort of coffee they were using. I was using quite light roasted coffee, with the usual roast defect being under-development. These coffees tend to perform best at low doses/high beverage volumes/low strength/high extraction. This is not what most people use. Most people probably drink coffee where the usual roast defect is baked or overdone. (BTW, if people tell me that they seldom encounter roast defects, I don't believe them - usually they have a poor frame of reference or have a vested interest in selling or defending their coffee.) People often extract these sorts of coffees at high doses/low beverage volumes/high strength/low extraction. Because flavour is the enemy of these coffees, because the flavour is bad. It's possible that for these styles of coffee the spacer results in an improvement. I wouldn't willingly spend my time or money on these sorts of coffees, but if someone wants to send me some, I can test out this theory a little more.
People also say that the spacer results in a drier puck. Maybe it does, but I'm not going to change my extraction to taste worse to get a drier puck. I'd rather pour a soup out of the basket and have a good shot, if that was the choice.
You can't buy spacers from Decent, so you can't save on shipping by ordering them with the machine, so probably the thing to do is buy the machine and try it without before working out if you want more expenditure.
Regarding where you get the accessories, the cottage industry is usually just some random guys that you find on the forum. They're all over the place; Korea and USA mainly, I think. For most of them, you message them on the forum and order from them and they'll organise to ship to you. Sometimes they manufacture in batches, so you need to get in on a batch and wait. Some of the bits and pieces are 3D printable, so you can get the files and print them yourself or have someone print them for you, and if you do that you may have a choice of colours and materials. A very few bits and pieces are carried by decent themselves; eg. Zubing's (the guy that made the The Force tamper) three hole steam tip. (I got Zubing's tip, BTW; too soon for me to have an opinion, but it is quite different.)
Regarding the baskets, they're important, and there's really not much good information out about most of them to enable effective comparisons. The decent baskets seem to require a marginally finer grind than the VSTs. They also have ridges in them, which I hate. I'd be interested to know if the pullman baskets require a finer or coarser grind than the same nominal capacity VST, for the same dose.
Regarding the spacer thing. Obviously you can put a part like a spacer into a machine to reduce the space between the shower screen and the top of the puck, but you can't do anything to increase that height, so it makes good sense that manufacturers would err on the side of having more room between the shower screen and the top of the puck. I remember way back when LM was the WBC sponsor machine in one of the years where they won the tender for another few years, I think one of the things that the technical panel liked was that there was more headspace, so there was more room for the baristas to change dose if they wanted to. The v1.0 machine had a higher shower screen than the 1.1. So every time someone talks about spacers, to make sense out of what they are saying, you need to know if they are on 1.0 or 1.1. Spacers presumably makes a much bigger difference for 1.0 than it does for 1.1.
I am on the 1.1 and spent a few months trying a few different group components to reduce space, etc. I methodically scored a bunch of espresso made with all variables the same, as much as possible, except for the group components. This quickly became quite an unpleasant chore, since it takes a lot of time to throw out shots that aren't within the criteria, record the scores, take refractometer readings, etc. The main reason that people give for liking the spacer is for bigger body and mouthfeel. I expected to experience that, but didn't. Some of the spacer type components resulted in a pretty significant drop in extraction yield, too.
Now in order to make sense of what people are writing about spacers, you also need to know what sort of coffee they were using. I was using quite light roasted coffee, with the usual roast defect being under-development. These coffees tend to perform best at low doses/high beverage volumes/low strength/high extraction. This is not what most people use. Most people probably drink coffee where the usual roast defect is baked or overdone. (BTW, if people tell me that they seldom encounter roast defects, I don't believe them - usually they have a poor frame of reference or have a vested interest in selling or defending their coffee.) People often extract these sorts of coffees at high doses/low beverage volumes/high strength/low extraction. Because flavour is the enemy of these coffees, because the flavour is bad. It's possible that for these styles of coffee the spacer results in an improvement. I wouldn't willingly spend my time or money on these sorts of coffees, but if someone wants to send me some, I can test out this theory a little more.
People also say that the spacer results in a drier puck. Maybe it does, but I'm not going to change my extraction to taste worse to get a drier puck. I'd rather pour a soup out of the basket and have a good shot, if that was the choice.
You can't buy spacers from Decent, so you can't save on shipping by ordering them with the machine, so probably the thing to do is buy the machine and try it without before working out if you want more expenditure.
Regarding where you get the accessories, the cottage industry is usually just some random guys that you find on the forum. They're all over the place; Korea and USA mainly, I think. For most of them, you message them on the forum and order from them and they'll organise to ship to you. Sometimes they manufacture in batches, so you need to get in on a batch and wait. Some of the bits and pieces are 3D printable, so you can get the files and print them yourself or have someone print them for you, and if you do that you may have a choice of colours and materials. A very few bits and pieces are carried by decent themselves; eg. Zubing's (the guy that made the The Force tamper) three hole steam tip. (I got Zubing's tip, BTW; too soon for me to have an opinion, but it is quite different.)
Regarding the baskets, they're important, and there's really not much good information out about most of them to enable effective comparisons. The decent baskets seem to require a marginally finer grind than the VSTs. They also have ridges in them, which I hate. I'd be interested to know if the pullman baskets require a finer or coarser grind than the same nominal capacity VST, for the same dose.
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