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Agree with this, it's a diagnostic tool more than anything else IMO. Obviously diagnosing & resolving issues with the puck should yield a better extraction and a better shot though.
On the channelling note, were you able to find any potential causes for it? In my experience it's commonly caused by just tamping too hard. Or people doing the 'knock the portafilter with the tamper to get that 0.01g of coffee off the side of the basket' thing.
mmccarthy
I have a bottomless portafilter for my Pavoni but I switched back to the regular version because I no longer want to be confronted with my inability to get rid of channeling. It looks nice when you get it right but if you don't ~10% of the coffee lands on your wall and counter instead of in your cup. I don't believe it makes a taste difference per se, but it gives more info to further dial in your grind / declumping / tamping.