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Glad you've hot a setup that works, I don't think that's the common experience though.
You look at the millions of reddit threads and people are constantly tweaking and faffing, changing machines, grinders etc chasing perfection.
Anyway, maybe I'm not the best judge as I don't like to drink espresso enough to go through it anyway (and I have been there).
Gewürzt-
To be honest 90% of the people you mention are just acute upgradeitis sufferes and/or people who hope that throwing money at the "hobby" will make up for time not invested in learning the basic skills. I genuinely. think that a very basic setup (Gaggia or Bambino + decent grinder) is all you need to learn and get consistently good espresso, fiddling too much on the other hand seems like a great way to lose track of where you're at...!
alex_s
No I do switch around, but once you know your grinder (and it shouldn't take too long) then you can hone in without too much faff. I never found light roasts to do well for espresso, granted, so not sure if that makes the experience worse as I've not been down that route...! My girlfriend drinks decaf so I'm switching beans constantly, but once you know where to grind you're golden 👍