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Might do, it’s a warm and potentially humid environment. Worth giving it a try.

Do you purge the first dose from the grinder? If not it’s because you’re mostly using coffee that was ground last time you used the machine, and the second shot is freshly ground, so you want to make your adjustments based on the second shot.

Early 90s Luxman integrated amps do come up around £200-£300 on eBay sometimes. I think they all work in class A for the first few watts so they should have a bit of magic about them.

A filter machine on a timer would improve your mornings no end, pre ground or not.

Doesn’t need to be a dark roast, just dark-er.

Given that you only have grind and dose to play with, aim for a 40 or 45 second shot. I find that’s a way to balance acidic coffee whilst still getting some body and crema.

If you get darker coffee and find it a bit roasty tasting then you want to do the opposite and under-extract the coffee. Go for the biggest dose you can squeeze in and aim for a 25 second shot.

Temp v sour shots - light roasts are less soluble so all else being equal light roasted coffees will give up less of their sugary compounds than darker roasts.

Increasing brew temperature is one way to achieve more extraction, so is grinding finer, reducing dose, increasing contact time by grinding finer for the same dose or reducing pump pressure.

Basically if it’s convenient to increase brew temp then do so but you can increase extraction by several methods.

If you’re struggling to get sweetness from most of your shots then it’s probably worth looking for a roaster that goes a bit fuller on the roast colour. The baby gets thrown out with the bath water quite regularly in pursuit of preserving flavour purity in espresso. It’s meant to be enjoyable not a challenge.

That’s great stuff, thanks. I’ll get them sorted out.

The LS3/5a replicas, which previously were 11ohm but I’ve now had 15ohm crossovers and drivers fitted.

I usually drive them with my other amp which is 60w and they’re fine. They’re fine on the Quads tbh, particularly with digital because the signal is stronger but from my turntable I just feel like I’m turning them up a bit high. I don’t hear any distortion, in fact they sound amazing but I just don’t really like having the volume at 3 o’clock for some reason.

When I had my Quad IIs overhauled, the tech asked me if I wanted to use the 8ohm taps or the 15ohm. I went for 8 ohm as that matched my speakers at the time. I’m now using 15 ohm speakers - would it be worth getting the transformers rewired to the 15 ohm outputs? I am having to turn them up close to max to get 70db SPL at the listening position. The speakers are small and inefficient and the amps are only 15w, mind. Would this adjustment have any effect on this?

Crikey. That might be your lack of flow just with the shower screen crud. Give it another try once you e cleaned that and if it works you can just do a regular in-operation descale without tearing the whole thing down.

Start by getting as much bodywork off as you can, that will give you good access to the innards, then just start dismantling everything. You’ll probably find it’s all clogged with limescale. Metal parts you can boil in a pan with citric acid to dissolve it.

Avoid taking wiring apart if you can, hopefully it all just unplugs easily.

I’ve just started a highways repair business, I’m looking for an investor to stump up the £100k donation to the Conservatives. I’ll buy some old road plantings and a shovel then we can trouser £4 bil each. What do you reckon?

This shiny little fella on the floor at work back in the summer.

Perfect! I love seeing those being reused in the wild. Nice to see someone using it for wholesome storage purposes too.

Turns out my stylus is damaged. I put in the stylus from my old cartridge and no more distortion. Annoying but it must have been when i mis-cued it. At least I haven’t screwed up all my records which I was starting to fear.

I’ve got this beaut waiting in the wings so I’ll get it installed as soon as I can get hold of the right fasteners.

I just got back from a 1500 mile trip round mainland Europe in the E39 which was an absolute joy. Had a play on unrestricted autobahn - didn’t really enjoy getting tailgated by super-SUVs at 200kph tbh. Anyhow, it had been an ambition to go on a big trip since I got that car and the opportunity finally presented itself. Lovely stuff.

Is it just for espresso? If so one of my colleagues just bought a Mignon Libra grind-by-weight and loves it.

135k. Mot Feb.

Excellent stuff, thanks.

Well WBAC value it at £1300 before they start marking down the faults so if you can give me £800 for it I would love someone to keep it going. It’s in Northampton.

Holed exhaust needs fabricated replacement, oil leak - not investigated yet, nasty engine rattle on startup, knackered shocks, knackered brakes, broken air con, broken I-drive, cracked back bumper.

Nothing terminal for someone with the time and acumen to do it themselves.

It seemed to slip under the radar somehow, probably because of the M135i which still commands good money. This I bought for £4k 5 years ago and I can’t imagine how you could buy a more fun car for that sort of money. It’s still worth a grand so I’ve had great value from it, just a shame I can’t justify keeping it going and that beautiful engine will probably be in a scrap heap come MOT time.

I’m parting ways with my 2006 BMW 130i because it has a whole litany of small and not so small issues and it’s now causing more pain than joy. I’m pretty gutted about it, I’m leasing a brand new little 3-cylinder hatch instead and I’ve never been less excited about a new car.

I’ll miss that wonderful noise and the oversteer and the revs and the driving position and….

Falcon M10 probably worth a look. They’ve got a bit of BBC DNA about them.

Always brush, both carbon and velvet. It’s driving me up the wall.

Love Amyl and the Sniffers btw.