Z10 Aluminium White (NAA)

I had a very similar situation as you. Had a gaggia manual machine. The honeymoon period of being a barista died quick. I was left with a year of inconsistent and often lackluster shots - not to mention dirty countertops. So I started browsing. My budget was around $1200 at first. The more research I did, I realized if I'm going to spend $1200 on a machine I want to be damn happy with it. So I did something stupid.. purchased a jura z10 for 4x my budget. I'm not rich by any means but I work a job where OT is plentiful. I'll be working the next 15 Sundays to pay it off. Moral of the story is not bankrupt yourself. It's to write down exactly what you want and make sure you're happy with it cause once you start setting 'budgets', you are probably spending more than you should. For me, what I wanted most was convenience and I paid out the butt for it but I haven't had a moment's regret.

Kitchen aid KF7 or KF8 I have a Jura Z10 that I would recommend. It’s probably outside your price range, but you could probably get a refurbished one off their site for your range.

I'm in a similar phase of life, and went with the Jura Z10. It's absolutely fabulous. I've had it for a little over a year and make 2 perfect lattes every day with almost zero effort. It's my favorite thing I own.

I did not look at the Miele. I use the glass container for milk. Since I only make 2 (sometimes 3) a day, it's easy to just grab out of the fridge when I need it. I keep the glass container full of milk in the fridge with the tubing attached and tied into a loose knot shape to keep the end of the tubing clean. It takes 2 seconds to pull it out and plug the tubing into the machine. I use the same container for a few days, then swap out for a clean one and wash.

Lets' be real here, if you spent time in this sub then you saw the negatives about the z10/giga 10 but you chose to ignore them. I am one of the nay sayers. The Jura E4 makes the same espresso as the z10. Lots of people have talked about the joe app being functional but not practical. No coffee phone apps are practical. People in this sub are dumb half the z10 ravers don't want to admit they over spent for little performance over a Miele or Kitchenaid, the others rave about it because its bragging about how much they spent, meanwhile the z10 is half the price in most of europe. 95% of the people in this sub act like they are coffee experts swear by Super Creme and their choice of drink is 11 ounces of milk to 1 oz of espresso on a #5 grind. That isn't coffee. They don't get it any of it. They don't even know how to brew espresso. If it makes you feel better the giga 10 is even worse in terms of cheap plastic. I wanted the two hoppers though. Your post seems more like buyers remorse. If you need help brewing ok espresso all you have to do is set the grinder to the fine setting and watch your ratios. Keep coffee on high strength 1.5oz max for espresso, 4oz max for coffee. If using dark roast keep the temp on low or Med. Hot water will make dark roast harsh.

Your Philips 5500 also has the flat ceramic burr, same as the 800 . A lot of Philips machines have the ceramic flat burr. They are not special and they are quite small. The kitchenaids are quite but the whole machine is insulated for sound. My jura has flat burr ceramic discs, they are not quiet and need a thick towel to muffel them. You want a ceramic flat disc for a certain flavor profile and they tend to stay cleaner. Grinds on a super auto are not that great anyway so I think it would be difficult for anyone to pickup the nuances between a flat disc or conical grinder. The Jura z10 has a conical grinder while the Giga 10 has flat discs for example. The quietness of it is Philips marketing team getting way over their skiis.

Jura has a 16g max dose.  Miele/KitchenAid/Melitta 15g.  Gaggia 11g, Delonghi 12g.   I have a semi too and I would never go back to less than 15g dose on a super auto for the serving size alone, then again flavor. I've tried them.   Also no one should pay more than $600usd for a gaggia or at all.  They are glorified Philips machines. The steam wand in them (and Delonghi) are under powered, the dose size is too small. 

People in this sub just group think and most people haven't tried more machines than the one they own. For instance, a lot of people trash the Bosch 800 but I know for a fact it makes espresso as good as a zura z10 as I've tried them both side by side and in fact a few of us thought the Bosch was better and is about $4k cheaper if you get it on sale. I've also tried the top end kitchenaid but not side by side and remembered thinking it's not any better. Point being, I'm not surprised on your analysis here.

Jura Z10. Fantastic machine and you will stay under half your budget.

Respectfully, it sounds like you’d be better off with a Nespresso. Your complaints are super subjective, which is fine, but Z10 is a hell of a machine and I should know because I’ve owned quite a few machines from this brand. With that being said, there’s no such thing as a perfect machine..