Mignon Libra

Love my Mignon Libra (original 55mm, now $800?!), but Eureka sells cheaper Mignon options ($400). Whole Latte Love sells refurbished, as does Amazon. Most Mignons now have sound attenuation treatment by default. (They used to advertise it only for better models.) Mine is pretty quiet, although I've never measured. You might barely hear it upstairs, but it's quiet and lower pitch, nothing annoying. Sounds pro. Zero retention. I only take it apart every month or two out of guilt and never find more than a little bit of dust inside. I'm sure aficionados that can taste burr shapes and which side of the mountain a bean grew on would differ, but I think the default burrs grind fine. I feel like there are a lot of other factors affecting my shot quality more. Grind by weight of the Libra is so simple if you don't mind drinking a bag at a time, unlike single dosing. I can walk up and have a shot in the basket in 10 seconds, tamp (8 seconds), and pull the shot in an instant-on Breville Bambino Plus (40 seconds) in less than a minute. One more minute to steam milk and some quick art if I'm doing a cortado. You can tell I got tired of dosing, right? I added the ARO precision aluminum grind dial to mine and highly recommend for repeatability and dialing in much more accurately than the default dial. Eureka has started to sell upgraded "King Dials" that track rotations, but look clunky comparatively in the videos I've seen.

Your Breville Bambino Plus (BB+) is a perfectly fine espresso machine, better than adequate. Grinder is everything. I would not recommend an appliance combining both machine and grinder. If either fail, you have to replace both. And neither are generally as featureful and quality as individual dedicated ones. You also can't upgrade one without the other. I have a BB+ paired with a Eureka Mignon Libra ($800), which is a little beyond your budget but grind-by-weight means a lot less time single dosing (weighing each shot's beans and feeding them through the grinder per shot). I can walk into the kitchen and have a dose in the basket in about 15 seconds. Tamp another 10, pull a 30 second shot, and be drinking it within 60 seconds total. Add another 60s for milk. Both the Eureka Mignon Specialita ($600) and Zero ($450) are cheaper than the Libra and with similar end results except for convenience of grind-by-weight. The Specialita has a hopper and can do timed doses, very close to weight although not quite as precise as the Libra, especially if you change beans a lot. The Zero is more intended for single dosing. All three look pro, are fast, quiet, feel heavy duty, use the same digital controls, and are very reliable. Eureka does not appear to sponsor YouTube reviews or provide free machines for them to review, so there are less reviews despite Eureka being such a large manufacturer, established 1920 in Florence, Italy. In case it helps, here's my general BB+ and espresso recommendations, including a budget list post link: https://www.reddit.com/user/digitect/comments/1s75tvs/espresso_recommendations_bambino_plus/

Fellow Nopus. I had the same experience, upgraded to Eureka Mignon Libra... zero retention.

At your budget, you could do a Breville Bambino Plus and a Mignon grinder. That's what I have and it is plenty of grinder and machine below aficionado "I can taste the differences between Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa beans at any roast level." Cheap machines are discussed so often here I keep a post: https://www.reddit.com/r/espresso/comments/1pemyi9/comment/nshft26/ SUMMARY (US market): * hand grinders: 1Zpresso Q Air Manual ($70) and KINGrinder K6 ($100) * electric grinders: Baratza ESP ($200), MiiCoffee/Turin DF54 ($250), and any Eureka Mignon intended for espresso you can find refurbished or used * espresso machines: Casabrews 3700 ($100), HiBrew H10B ($125), De'Longhi Dedica ($150), De'Longhi Classic($180), Breville Bambino ($250), Breville Bambino Plus ($400)

The Eureka Mignon series can take a single dose or larger hopper giving you the ability to switch based on your preference. I have the Libra and added a single dose hopper with bellows for when I want to switch beans.

Yes the Atom 75 is the top of their home line. The W is grind by weight. The silenzio and specialata are both from their eureka line. The Eureka Mignon Libra is the grind by weight GbW option for that line. I currently have the Eureka Mignon Libra but would probably upgrade to a Atom75W for speed purposes in coming year or so.

Have GWB (Libra). It’s nice, but now my partner started drinking decaf and I envy single dose grinders. Never had one but i think weighing the beans would not be a annoying additional step. What I find also limiting is that I’m limited to grind into the portafilter as nothing else works with the GWB, so for experimenting etc Single dose just seems to be more fun.

The entire family pooled together to get me a Eureka Mignon Libra for my 30th and I would highly recommend. An extremely consistent and well built machine. As for vendors I have bought machines from homecoffeemachines.ie and parts and accessories from blue star coffee. (Both based in Galway) and found them both good.

Absolutely fair. Both of those are great options from what I've seen. Mine is exclusively used for espresso. I can 100% see what people are saying though. The grind dial has numbers for reference for small adjustments but they don't provide a definitive reading of the grind setting because the dial is stepless and can be completely rotated multiple times. So if you're swapping brew a lot you could easily lose track of where you are and then end up having to empty the hopper and zero the burrs to dial in again.

Eureka Mignon Libra, takes a whole step out of my morning routine

My Eureka Mignon Libra is written "Made in Italy" ok it...