I was looking for a fully featured espresso machine (stainless steel boiler for coffee, separate heating element for steam, dual PIDs, variable pressure and water flow) and the least expensive I could find was like 1800 bucks, then I found a video about the Turin Legato v2, a machine that checked literally every box I was looking for at a price point under 500 dollars. This espresso machine is a white label unit which is also sold as the Miicoffee Apex V2 and the Gemilai G3007L, so you're shopping on service not on price/features here, and for that reason I went with the one from Turin. My wife and I have averaged more than a dozen shots from it everyday since it arrived, and we haven't been let down yet.
All cards on the table, the portafilter and basket it comes with are kind of meh, you're going to want to spend a bit of money on a decent bottomless portafilter and if you're splurging, a 58/49-28 stepdown basket so you can get those sweet sweet 49mm deep pucks like you'll get on a $3000 espresso machine.
Hopefully this unit is going to last for years, time will tell, but so far it is absolutely fantastic, and after literally hundreds of double shots in just a few weeks, it hasn't given me any issues.
This machine has an amazing feature set for the price. It has been reliable so far. The only negative at this point is a couple minor software bugs that only present themselves on occasion: When setting the brew time for the automatic mode, it doesn't always use the preinfusion settings, and it has activated the automatic mode from the manual button a couple times.
Coming from BBE this is a big upgrade, faster and more convenient to use. My gripes with this machine is the water tank does not line up with the rest of the body well and the drip tray grate doesn't look nice. Both cosmetic issues that do not affect performance.
Love, Love this machine. I'm a newbie to this process, but look forward to many days seeking the ultimate cup of espresso.
Very happy with my machine thus far and great service overall from espresso outlet