What the Espresso Revolution Can Teach Audiophiles

[delta76]

Pretty much different . Espressos can taste much different from each other. Audio components sound essentially the same except for speakers

yes. the condition of coffees are vastly different from each to another. Different countries. Different weathers (each year) Different regions. Different farms. Different methods. Different bags. Different roasting. Different grinders. etc. etc.

Adding a scale is a huge step forward in repeatability, but there is so much variables in a natural product.
You can be sure that the signal coming to the speakers to be the same across globe. But you can't say the same about the espresso coming out of group head. In fact, two espressos pulling from same bag, same grinder, same machine could be different. Even if very slightly.

 

[DY2]

Is the 1 million euro Javabot the Wilson of espresso gear?

Certainly makes stuff like the one below look like a bargain with its humble 15k euro.

View attachment 538871

Seriously now, I love espresso and unlike some other stuff I don't want it to be perfect.
I have the same dosage meter for years, and that's it.

I did gave the extra cent for an installed Miele but that was part of the whole kitchen and we rarely use it.

Pattern is familiar though, the moment it'll become a hobby, sky is the limit, as with any hobby.

You've got it right, there are no limits to a hobby, no matter what it is.

I also have a built-in AEG, but it's used daily, I've made over 15k extractions with it, even so, my hobby is still the ECM that I programmed at the button to always produce the same quality in espresso.

There's still work to be done with music, innovative things are always coming out...

 

[antcollinet]

case of baking the key parameters of weight, time, and temp

What? You mean ..... a recipe? Pretty certain Grandma did have those, and she used scales.

 

[Sokel]

Watch out with scales, first time my wife laid eyes on the cartridge/tonearm scale I got thought I went into dubious means of income

 

[CD2]

What? You mean ..... a recipe? Pretty certain Grandma did have those, and she used scales.

Weird thing to quibble about. Mid-20th century recipe books in the US presented bread recipes entirely in volume, not weight (consult some), and to this day, bread books aimed at the larger public include volume "equivalents" because most home cooks lack scales, especially with much precision. The relatively recent shift to doing recipes entirely by weight, among hobbyists, is linked to widespread understanding of the concept of hydration ratios, something you will also not find in older books, US or UK. This means that the quantities of a recipe can be presented entirely as a set of ratios, and so not only easily scaled up and down, but also manipulated in precise ways. (Volume measures for flour are too imprecise for this) Re temperature, people also track dough temperature during fermentation, and calibrate ovens, which are notoriously imprecise. So yeah, having experience over five decades, I can attest that there has been a revolution in hobbyist precision, technical knowledge, and capacity to make a much wider range of breads than was typical several decades ago. thefreshloaf.com is a good example of the sophistication of current amateur bread-making.

So there are obvious links to coffee (I used to roast, though not as geekily as some roasters). Audio less, but thefreshloaf does sometimes parallel this site in that chemists etc. with serious technical chops sometimes engage amateurs.

 

[pablolie]

Espresso is orders of magnitude more complex than audio reproduction. The inputs change with each pull.

Not remotely close.

We can overcomplicate everything in either area, imo. I used to have a 2.5k+ Jura machine. I am perfectly happy with the Nespresso system these days.

There is one key difference: espresso/cappuccino etc is ruled by personal preference, not by a "standard". How much water, how much milk etc ... those are recommendations, and invariably espresso enthusiasts bicker among themselves. Few grains of salt mandatory? etc. And measuring the output is not common place no matter how much you control the input. It's easy to establish a very repeatable process that yields the result that satisfies us.

In audio, measuring the output has become quite trivial. Whether or not the result perfectly caters to your preferences is up to you to experience.

 

[gaz]

The coffee scene is not as rational as you hope.

They hate pressurised baskets, and I've never seen any valid reasons. (With my present machine I have the pressurised basket supplied, plus a bottomless basket, and they both require the same grind, but the pressurised basket gives more crema, due to the incorporation of air. I rarely use the bottomless basket.)

Regarding water chemistry, there was so much nonsense sprouted on the forums that I refused to join any.

I'm happy to discuss coffee on the thread in this forum.

 

[antcollinet]

Mid-20th century recipe books in the US presented bread recipes entirely in volume,

Neither of my Grandmas ever went to USA.