It'll be a dual boiler type anyway I think,
looked at heat exchanger units, swings and roundabouts, but like the idea of fast heat up in the morning, and no messing about waiting for steam to get up to pressure.
Those E61 grouphead Italian machines DO look nice though, I like the old school, hands on "Flood the Engine room" look they have.
One of the machines I looked last time I was shopping at was the Rocket Appartamento, but hitting the coffee forums recently its not quite as big a deal as it was a couple of years ago, when I last looked at these.
Got a mokka pot instead to see if I had the level of "arsedness" to go down the espresso route.
Grinding beans n stuff, and its absolutely worth it.
Convenience, flexibility and consistency is what I'm looking at.
Low maintenance is a factor too, I know these aren't plug n play, but some need more faff than others, the Heat Exchangers in particular it seems to me.
So dual boiler it is.
AC POWER
Hardwired 10kVA balanced mains powering entire system
AMPS
Meridian 557 power Amp (Modded) / PS Audio BHK Preamp (Modded)
SPEAKERS
Wharfedale Evo 4.4
DAC
PS Audio Directstream (Modded)
TURNTABLE
Pro-Ject X8 balanced output via XLR / Ortofon Quintet Blue cartridge
PHONOSTAGE
Pro-Ject DS3 B balanced Input (TT and Phonostage powered by Pro-Ject Power box RS2 linear psu)
DIGITAL
OPPO 203 (Modded: Linear PSU, i2s output to Dac) - Roon Endpoint, HDMI input used for all things Streaming/ PS5 /AppleTV ... also good for movies apparently?
MUSIC PLAYBACK
Tweaked AP-Linux based Roon Server into Oppo 203 as Roon endpoint
Ipad Roon Remote.
Apple Music/ YouTube via AppleTV, fed to Dac via Oppo HDMI input/i2s output to Dac.
SPEAKER CABLES
Biwired: Duelund DCA10GA (Bass) Duelund DCA16GA (mid & treble) Duelund 12DCA used as jumpers (On "Blackcat Cable" Chris Sommivigo's advice - yup, even with biwire it sounds better - and it does)
INTERCONNECTS
All Balanced: Ghost+ recording studio XLR cables