I can comment on one of the pod machines that I've tried, the Philips Senseo.
I'm not a coffee snob, but do love good coffee. The reality of getting good coffee in my area (even at SB) is usually nil, so I've been looking at getting an espresso machine. However, I thought I'd give the senseo a try first since it's considerably less expensive than a good espresso machine.
First, my hats off to the Philips marketing department for doing such a convincing job with the Senseo. But as for the actual machine, and the coffee it makes.... on word describes it - NASTY. They've tried so hard to fit a niche between drip brewers and espresso machine that they do neither well. I bought my machine, brought it home, washed it according to directions, and brewed the first cup. Horrid-bitter-weak-stale. So I tried using 2 pods, but brewing for just one cup, now it just took "weak" out of the aforementioned list.
The long and the short is, no matter what I tried, I couldn't get a drinkable cup of coffee from the Senseo. Within 3 hours of buying it, I was back at target getting my money back. Since then, I've heard from numerous other people who've had the same results.
My advice, stay away from them and spend the money on an espresso machine, or if your budget doesn't run that high, get a good French Press or MokaPot (stove top italian coffee maker) and some good beans.
Tim