I tried a lot of beans from Dutch coffee roasters. The one I like the most is the Bourbon Royal from Blanche Dael. Grinder setting: 3-4, depends on what coffee I make.
I think there is a pretty notable difference. I went from a Philips 5400 (same machine as the 3200/3300 just fancier features) to a using my brother in laws Delonghi Dinamica Plus pretty regularly, to the KitcheAid KF8 we have now and I would say every one of them was a noticeable jump in quality even though we drink milk drinks 90%+ of the time. The real question I think is if the KF8 is 50% better than the Philips since that is about the price difference and personally I think so, but I’d wager that most people would find it to fall in the diminishing returns category.
I bought my wife a Philips lattego 5400, we've had it since 2020 and it's still going strong. Total drinks made is 5000ish. Good beans, good milk, good coffee!
I can second this. We had a Phillips 5400 series and it was fine. It recently broke (which happens, no big deal, still under warranty) and replaced it with a DeLonghi Dinamica and they’re not comparable. The Dinamica is a more capable machine but the coffee is much smoother in the Dinamica. I agree that the Phillips was quite watery.
If it's your first machine, you may never notice the difference. If you're asking for a recommendation based on 20 years of experience with superautomatics, including 2 years with a 5400, I can not recommend it. It creates subpar espresso, and it is a nightmare to maintain. Go with a Delonghi, much better machine within the same price range.
Good point about the beans. One thing I noticed is that the Philips is very forgiving in terms of the types of beans, basically, due the fact that it's not capable of grinding fine enough and the brew unit self adjusting to avoid it from jamming, resulting in a weak under extracted shot. That was my biggest gripe, as no matter what I did, I was never able to make a strong, full-bodied shot with thick crema. Something that the Delonghi can do very easily and very well.
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