First impressions are good.....the machine is under £1300 so the finishing in one or two areas is naff, but that does not affect the coffee! I bought this for the following reason.........when you bring the levr down, a vibe pump kicks in and fills the group head. that allows you to do two things. firstly, control how much water goes into the group. this means that you can determine the bar pressure, so that you can make the machine mimic the shot pattern of other machines, which basically means determining the amount of spring or pump assiatnce on the shot.
It also means, for example, if you want to pull a ristretto.....we know that a ristretto is the extraction from the start of the puck, but on an E61 you can only control this by either turning the button on or off. With the Strega, you can watch the flow, especially the dark colour and then to maximise the extraction of the part you want, you can raise stop the lever from rasing meaning that it is purely pressure extracting, which causes the flow to slow down allowing you to stretch out the part of the shot you want. If you think that sounds like *ollocks, then I have not explained it very well!
Visit this Jim Schulman link and watch the second and third video clips, and prepare to be amazed!
http://www.home-barista.com/reviews/bez ... 18933.html