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I use French press and pre-ground coffee for this. Disposing of the grounds is a bit messy that’s all.

I took a punt on upgrading the phono stage in my system from the one built in to the preamp and I was really happy with the result. Bought it on Amazon so I could return it easily if it didn’t make an improvement but that’s definitely not happening.

I’ve got to replace a gear pump on the Sanremo Opera in the shop. I’ve done 2 of the 3 previously, they were about £350 a couple of years ago. £900 now. Fortunately there’s a repair kit available which has also tripled in price to £180.

Coffee freshness is pretty much ideal then.
You’ve got all your variables under control, just pump pressure is unknown so I’d look at that. Some machines ship with the pump at max pressure. Check to see whether you have an adjustable OPV on your machine, then see if you can borrow a portafilter pressure gauge to see what you’re getting

How fresh is your coffee?
Did you buy the grinder new? - could the burrs be dull?
Are you getting a consistent dose of ground coffee?

That’s the dry side of things, then check the machine is in good order - correct pump pressure, dispersion block and screen not obstructed by scale or dirt. Maybe get a new basket in case the holes have gone wrong.

Tamping just takes diligence but you can get all that fiddly kit that takes the guesswork out of basket prep.

This but it’s a bit open-source, enthusiast level.

https://brennan.co.uk/pages/b3-overview

It’s a special accessibility needs switch 😂

TVM Northampton. Give him a call I’m sure he’d love to chat.

Here’s a prosaic upgrade - a foot switch socket. I was getting the hump with the Quads having no power switch, the other power amp having the power switch on the back, no easy access to the sockets and groping around for the power strip switches. So much so that I had started looking into ditching it all for an integrated amp. Now the whole lot comes on with a satisfying stamp.

Also took the Quads for a checkup while I was having the front room decorated and explained my concern about the absence of chassis earthing. He explained that any ground fault would find its way to the neutral which is tethered to earth at the RCD board and it would trip. Happy about that.

What happens if you touch the earth against an exposed bit of the negative RCA?

Edit: nothing I suppose. Duh.

If it doesn’t hum don’t worry about it.

It’s a Yamaha A-S500, they’re so cheap second hand it’s crazy.

We’ve cleared the downstairs for decorating and I’ve been without the stereo for over a week. Health things meant a day’s R&R yesterday so I rigged up my integrated amp to the LS3/5As and the turntable in the bedroom (dumping ground for everything from downstairs) and had a nice Smog session.

I really liked using the one-box amp compared to my linear power supply - preamp - power amp / pair of monoblocks faff. It did lack a little bit of magic but still sounded lovely, I had a great time.

Yeah that’s a speaker wire with some sort of proprietary plug on the end. Snip the plug off, separate the wires and bare the ends and you can attach it to your amp.

Does the subwoofer have its own power supply? If so you’re good to go, if not then it’s passive and is going to put extra demand on your amp. You’ll need to do some research into impedance and all that witchcraft.

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My Dragonfly Red does.

Shop mills have a pretty easy life compared to espresso grinders - if you’re happy that you’re getting good definition of flavour from the coffee you can leave the burrs alone. They’re usually good for many hundreds of kilos.

https://brewitgroup.com/ are the UK distributor for Mahlkonig and all the spares. If they don’t have them you might need to look at getting a machine shop to sharpen them.

I use the same machine for filter at the roastery, lovely piece of kit

Missed this but yes, I always hold pizzas at 70* in the regular oven until they’re all cooked so I can serve them all at once, to no detriment that I can notice.

Good insight into what people expect to pay for coffee this. I genuinely pay very little attention to what everyone else is doing. I put the prices up earlier this year and was surprised at the lack of pushback.

I deliberately keep my inventory reasonably priced and don’t chase the latest massive flavour sensation as that’s a small market which is well catered for. I do buy a 1 bag wonder each month so there’s always something new and a bit more daring on the rota. My personal preference is for elegant, subtle, fully developed washed coffees and other processes that reflect the traditions of their region - and those coffees are pretty affordable relative to the very experimental whopping great big experience types.

My biggest outlet for beans by far is over the counter in the shop and the big volume coffees other than espresso blend are the Brasil and Colombia. I put a geisha on at £18/250g and it hung around, I found the ceiling for my pricing there.

Don’t forget your DOASKID discount code for 20% off at checkout [says beneficiary of Yellow Bourbon revenues]

I don’t have any experience with a niche but lots with Mignons in all their variants and they’ve always been excellent and reliable. I don’t know of anything else at that price point which is so nicely built and performs so well.

Holy shit 16 minutes on stirring ground coffee with a pin.

Audiophile vibes is right - all this fussy home espresso stuff makes me roll my eyes, yet I get seduced by much the same silliness with audio:
Trying to achieve professional results in a domestic environment - check, continuous upgradeitis with wildly diminishing returns - yep. Tiptoeing the chagrin of my partner - very much so.

Ah great stuff, glad that’s worked out. Cheers.

You probably need to purge, but maybe not a whole shot, you’ll have to experiment, but just to see whether that is actually the issue I would purge a whole shot the next few times you start the machine up.

Single dosing might not make a difference because the whole space between the burrs and the exit needs to be full of coffee for the newly ground stuff to push it through, so it’s continuously replacing old coffee if you see what I mean.

This is why people agonise over grinder retention. My view is that you can purge an awful lot of coffee before you’re close to the price of a grinder that claims not to retain anything.