"Budget" machines (Briel, Delonghi, and Krups).

[CJ Paul]

Hello all. I'm looking into getting an espresso machine. I would first say that I am a big home audio and home theater buff and have thousands of dollars worth of equipment. My friends always want advice on what "home theater in a box" to get that goes for like $500 total. Needless to say, I am now putting you in that position. I.e. I want an espresso machine, but I simply am not going to spend $1000 or even $500 and I'd prefer not to spend $300. So what I'm asking is, are these machines absolutely atrocious or are they passable for someone who is not crazy deep into the hobby and just likes a good cup?

I'm considering the following:

Briel Artemis or Chamonix, I cant tell a large difference between these and am unsure if one is a newer model than the other etc. They are available here. http://www.celebritycookware.com/bresarpuesma.html and http://www.celebritycookware.com/es35abf.html

Delonghi B32 - http://www.celebritycookware.com/bar32.html

Krups Novo 3000 - http://www.celebritycookware.com/krfnno3015ba.html

The krups is actually pushing it unfortunately because I'm contemplating asking for the machine from my wife for my birthday and we have set a pretty hard $150 limit. Please provide any advice you can, keeping in mind that my standards are probably not the same as yours.

Thank you.

 

[CJ Paul]

PS, does the search function not work, or is it just me? I was trying to do some research but I cant get the search function to work.

 

[Quink]

I've had a briel chamonix for about 5 years now. It can do reasonable coffee, and foaming is quite good. there probably are better machines out there, but if you look it up on coffeegeek they do get reasonable reviews. I'll say that I have managed to stall it once by grinding too fine and tamping too hard but only once. So its not too bad and it should last you a while.

 

[CJ Paul]

Thank you Quink, that was the kind of useful reply I was hoping for. Much appreciated. Any knowledge the Artemis? If you got to Briel's website there is a maching somewhat boldly marked as "NEW" called the Apollo which looks very similar. I wondered if it is their new line.