Sounds the same. My wife always moans I make it too strong and I have to add hot water to hers. And she also moans it's not hot enough.

It was the Magnifica I was thinking about. Was it worth buying? Although just looked and I can get the Dinamica for not much more.

We did have one by Dualit initially after my other one failed. I have a Dualit percolator and that's brilliant, and other things they make are always highly rated. It was secondhand but looked brand new. All still in the box with every accessory and all looked unused. Owner said they just couldnt work out how to use it. They sold it for about £50 (RRP was £170). It was the worst expresso machine I've ever used. Only successfully made a coffee 1 out of 4 times. It would either block if you tapped down the coffee slightly too much, or would somehow decide to fire tons of coffee grounds into the coffee. It got binned! Horrible thing.