Sturdy, high quality, stainless casing. 12 oz. brass boiler heats quickly, powerful steam. Best value within my budget of $1000 for a package with the Rocky doserless grinder. Great crema!!!

A bit tricky to figure out ideal tamping/grind combination.

This machine is a life-saver for my wife and I. We had owned a Starbucks Barista and a Breville in recent years, but were looking to upgrade without going over $1000. After a few days and a pound of beans, we kissed the Breville goodbye and moved forward with the Silvia.

The Silvia is relatively easy to get set up, although the manual was hard to read, it must have been translated from Italian. The powerful 12 oz. brass boiler heats up very quickly in the mornings and is always ready to go when we are. We found it best to froth our milk for lattes and cappuccinos before pulling our shots. The steam wand is easy to use and has ample frothing power to heat up milk for 2 drinks at the same time. I recommend the Rancilio Silvia to any espresso lover needing to break free from Starbucks and the like. It truly pays for itself!

After speaking with many different online vendors, we purchased our Silvia from seattlecoffeegear.com. The very friendly salesperson, Gail, spent over 40 minutes on the phone discussing this and other machines with us, and we feel that we were well educated and comfortable with our decision. Our package shipped out the day we ordered it and was on our doorstep in 5 days. A relative in the Seattle area told me that he had visited their retail store and actually demonstrated some machines before purchasing his Pasquini Livia 90 (my wife is jealous!!!). I recommend Seattle Coffee Gear even to East-Coasters, their customer service was better than the other company I spoke with right here in New York.