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The audio market gets mocked all the time, for good reasons such as this. So, I’m going to draw a parallel with another market which I believe is very similar,

by yumraj 5y ago

The audio market gets mocked all the time, for good reasons such as this. So, I’m going to draw a parallel with another market which I believe is very similar, IMHO of course, and that is the Espresso market. There are grinders and machines for several $1000s and I’ve been curious if people are indeed able to tell the difference or is it just that it has become a passion/hobby for many.

zimpenfish 5y ago
James Hoffman on the YouTubes has a good channel about this where he sometimes does blind taste tests and can pretty reliably tell the good grinder / machine from the bad ones but he is a self-declared "weird coffee person" who basically spends his life brewing coffee etc. (e.g. founded a pretty respectable coffee roasting company in the UK.) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ
mjgoeke 5y ago
I can’t speak for the entire spectrum available. But I have two data points and am shocked at the difference, since I expect none. At home I have a rancilio rocky grinder, bought used, newly replaced burrs. It’s “stepped” so I don’t have much fine tuned flexibility - I’m basically choosing between only two or three steps for espresso. My friend has a Pharos manual grinder. I’ve come over to help his wife adjust the grind several times. I bring the same beans I’ve been using that week as a reference point. I’m always shocked how much better theirs tastes - even far-out-of-optimal shots - ones that are very fast or very slow. On my machine the unpleasant overextracted flavors creep in quickly. I chalk it up to consistency of the grind - and that’s observable. You can pinch grinds up and “smear” them across a white sheet of paper to observe size, and to a lesser extent, variability. I’m still surprised that the grinder affects the espresso more than the espresso machine. Note: the Pharos is a beast and I don’t recommend it unless you like armwrestling as part of you coffee prep every time.

by yumraj 5y ago

zimpenfish 5y ago

James Hoffman on the YouTubes has a good channel about this where he sometimes does blind taste tests and can pretty reliably tell the good grinder / machine from the bad ones but he is a self-declared "weird coffee person" who basically spends his life brewing coffee etc. (e.g. founded a pretty respectable coffee roasting company in the UK.) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ

mjgoeke 5y ago

I can’t speak for the entire spectrum available. But I have two data points and am shocked at the difference, since I expect none. At home I have a rancilio rocky grinder, bought used, newly replaced burrs. It’s “stepped” so I don’t have much fine tuned flexibility - I’m basically choosing between only two or three steps for espresso. My friend has a Pharos manual grinder. I’ve come over to help his wife adjust the grind several times. I bring the same beans I’ve been using that week as a reference point. I’m always shocked how much better theirs tastes - even far-out-of-optimal shots - ones that are very fast or very slow. On my machine the unpleasant overextracted flavors creep in quickly. I chalk it up to consistency of the grind - and that’s observable. You can pinch grinds up and “smear” them across a white sheet of paper to observe size, and to a lesser extent, variability. I’m still surprised that the grinder affects the espresso more than the espresso machine. Note: the Pharos is a beast and I don’t recommend it unless you like armwrestling as part of you coffee prep every time.