RichMSN, please report back on how you like it. Mrs. PTravel would kill me if I spent that kind of money on an espresso machine, so I have a Brevia which I find reasonable enough. However, sometimes I get lucky when I go to Las Vegas, and I consider it bad luck to save gambling wins, so . . . maybe next year. I'm a bit of a coffee snob, and a decent machine in the under $1,000 category is always of interest.