User Feedback wanted: Saeco Vienna & MAgic DeLuxe

"JohnH" <
Well, since I started the problem, you know my opinion, but I'll post it
again, partly for completeness and partly because there's a butthead who owns
one of the mail-order companies who posts particularly misleading messages
here.

The Vienna is an adequate machine. It will successfully and consistently
produce drinkable espresso with a single press of a button. It uses the same
"brew group" as the Magic de Luxe; the brew group is the unit that does the
tamping and brewing.

The Magic de Luxe is a much better unit. Properly programmed, it produces
excellent espresso, very consistently.

A manual machine can produce Magic de Luxe quality espresso, but will, in the
hands of an inattentive user, produce dreck that can't even compare to Vienna
espresso. In the hands of an expert, a manual machine is not just used to
create the drink, but to perform the ritual of espresso preparation. For some
people, this hands-on ritual is a very large part of the taste. I find it
more inconvenient, largely because my wife is challenged if it's more than a
button-press.

The Magic de Luxe produces better espresso than the Vienna because more
parameters are under your control, and they're further under your control. I
have mine set to brew a shot at 30gm of water, with roughly 8 gm (maybe 9) of
fairly-finely ground beans. I don't think the Vienna can go down to a 30gm
shot, and doses 7gm of beans. The Magic de Luxe came defaulting to 60 and
120, I believe! (Easy to program though; if you buy one, ask for people's
favorite settings. It will save time and frustration.) The Magic also
remembers multiple settings, and allows easy brewing with another pre-ground
bean (such as decaf.) I haven't used either of these features; I set the
settings for the beans I buy, and I don't drink decaf.

Is the Magic de Luxe worth the almost-double? Probably not, if money is tight
and neither of you will drink espresso straight. If it's always mocha and
latte, the Vienna will probably serve you fine.

If money isn't so tight or if you like it straight, you NEED a Magic de Luxe.
You'll regret it if you don't.

Lastly, about those misleading statements from a purveyor of perfectly fine
goods at excellent prices (and they are fine goods at good prices): there is a
poster here who is fond of saying that the Vienna is a toy because the Magic
de Luxe (and Royal Classic) weigh twice as much. Note that most of Saeco's
machines weigh 2/3 of what the Vienna does (it weighs 14#, most Saeco manual
units weigh 9#.) Also note that the other heftier machines have a warming
tray (a big thick hunk o' metal) and a swivel base (two thick plates of metal
plus bearings), that the Vienna lacks. The brew group is the same, the pump
is probably the same or at least good enough. The power draw and tank size
are the same. I think he's full of it. Let your budget and drinks guide you
instead.

(Although he does have good merchandise and prices.)

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