Were there any compromises made in the design of the Versalab M3 espresso machine?
Yes, there were, but not any compromises that would have improved the machine in a noticeable way. People often comment that price is very high, but the truth is, it could have cost twice as much. With the M3 espresso machine, we kept the cost as low as we could without compromising performance. The machine started as labor of love, and I expected I’d finish it within a year. But shortly I realized how much work was ahead of me. To truly be revolutionary in the design, I must control with great precision, elements that no one has controlled before in an espresso machine. How to do it required not just research, but mostly creative thinking. What I thought would take one year ended up taking four times that much and a lot more money than I anticipated. Why design a new grinder? It actually started with David Schomer. One of the first things we discussed was the need to improve espresso grinders. I read Illy’s chapter on grinding, and took the DRM grinder apart. It was built like old Fer
