I cant believe that for that price its going to produce significantly better quality than a lessor price machine Still, there's a lot of new semi commercial single group machines on the market for around the $3500 mark - so that's not a huge step up price wise personally Ive bought a few 2nd hand single group semi commercial machines in the past (bezzera / cimbali / rancilio) for home use and occasional coffee catering - and they've all been work horses capable of producing very good coffee, and great for dealing with relative volume (I've knocked out 60 coffees /hot chocolates in an hour before from a single group - but its damned hard work!) I suppose that it should also be noted that in a competitive market place some customers will walk into your joint, take a look at the equiupment you're using, and if it hasnt got the 'bling' factor, they'll walk out again - i know this from personal experience: coffee sales went up when I got the Kees Van der Westen at my last joint. And in fact if im out and about and i want to buy a coffee then ill definitely check out what's on the bench when making my purchase decision about who to buy from. Does fancy equipment make for better coffee? Not always. But in most instances if an operator is going to lay down their hard earned for something fancy, you would assume that they'd follow up with appropriate staff training to drive that machine Doesn't always work, and it doesn't matter what equipment you use if the product you're using is no good yesterday at Campberwell market I had a perfectly acceptable and quite decent coffee from an operator using a no frills machine. But i watched his technique on the machine and observed his passion and consistency for his product - and the resulting coffee was bloody good! whereas last week I had 3 takeaway coffees in one day all in the city from 'reputable' cafes, all using top end equipment - one was great, one tasted like apple pie, and i threw the other one away.. p
