No. It’s better. I’ve had one alongside an LMLM, Slayer SG, Vectis, various Brevilles. Hands down, F58 bested them all for all beans/roast levels.
Its workflow, however, was the worst. Not terrible (the preheated helps), but slow and janky. If you’re making more than a shot or two, the other machines make sense. Personally, I used the Vectis most often (next best in the cup), followed by the Slayer. The LMLM was relegated to the office, doing what it did best (medium dark flat 9 milk drinks all day every day.)
Consistency is also tough on the Flair, especially for beginners who might lose their minds trying to dial in without the muscle memory to minimize shot-to-shot variables. To be h9nest, I preferred to dial in beans on the semiautomatics or spring levers, and extrapolate to the flair.
For home I think the LMLM is not great value for money (unless you have a huge extended family demanding lattes every 2 minutes). The latest Mini R at least gets you proper preinfusion without having to plumb in. And the IoT integration+app is the stupidest thing ever. You can do better with ECM or Profitec, IMHO.
With no budget there are a lot of better options imo. Gs3, Sanremo you, that pro eagle thing James Hoffman consulted on. For a no compromises machine you want flow profiling of some sort. All this flat nine bar nonsense should go out the window at 2k. LM makes some great machines but the micra isn’t one of them. I mean why isn’t a slayer on your list? If you must have a LM go for the Strada X single group. That’s about the only thing I can imagine if I were up for a new machine and had no budget constraint.
I was considering a mini or GS3 but went Slayer. Note OP needs a better grinder (I prefer Kafatek flat max), and needs to confirm appropriate water before worrying more about the machine IMO Otherwise, there's another ~2k in making sure that the water is correct.
captain_blender
