Dose Control Pro

ive got the sage dose control pro, its done well for me and only (£160) unless you want to spend more, ive heard the niche are quite good. check out **James Hoffmann's** youtube channel, he reviews everything coffee and on different price points. talks about the science behind espresso machines, its quite interesting even if you dont take his recommendations

I'm very happy with my Sage Dose Control Pro

I've had mine a couple of days and I'm very happy with it. Funnily enough though, I'm getting way more retention than I was with the Sage Dose Control Pro, even with RDT. But, to balance it out, the grinds are waaay more consistent than I ever had before. The Dose Control Pro wasn't even in the same ballpark.

As someone who has used a Sage Dose Control Pro grinder for the last couple of years (which I think has the same internals as the Smart Grinder Pro), I would say it's decent enough for espresso, but he will likely want to upgrade again at some point. I have just gotten a DF54 from Bella Barista and the difference is night and day. It's around £240 I believe, but well worth the extra money if you can stretch to it! It's much higher quality than the Sage and feels hefty, has a smaller footprint and a super consistent grind. It uses flat burrs as opposed to conical which produces a much better taste too (in theory).

Mine is £110 - Dose Control Pro Not perfect but does the job

Agreed. I’ve tried a slow and fast fed J Ultra and K6 side by side on the same beans. If it were a Venn diagram they’d be two circles next to each other with little overlap. The J Ultra overall had a smaller change in profile vs the K6. I’d imagine this is similar to slow feed discs on the Niche vs slow feeding a bimodal flat burr like the SSP HUs. Granted the clarity from the K6 wasn’t all welcome - for the particular medium roast beans my favourite cup was the slow fed J Ultra. Slow fed K6 was mostly bitter, and slightly less so with the fast fed K6. Still, burr geometry made a difference in addition to feed rate. This convinced me to get something which produces a lot more fines - my dose control pro - which when I slow feed tastes almost like a fast fed K6

Agree, the sage grinder will make you want to go to the next one quickly.

Sage would be the one to go for here if you must get an integrated. They’ve definitely made and sold the most and have an established track record. I recently had a great Sage customer experience, my Bambino Plus developed a temp sensor fault which bricked the machine, I emailed them and they repaired it for me even though I was 7 months out of warranty. They have also sent me follow up emails to make sure all is well and I’m satisfied. A Sage Bambino and Grinder Pro would be cheaper than an integrated unit, be a better performer and better value whilst keeping a small footprint.