[bch]

Before making sure you have access to good beans (had to carry on with the theme), make sure you actually want to have "coffee" as another hobby in your life. Maybe it's worth it to outsource to your local cafe the machine maintenance, grind fine-tuning, bean recipes, hours learning milk steaming, hours spent on youtube, coffee forums, commenting in the occasional HN coffee-adjacent articles...

[ThrowawayR2]

If good coffee is the goal and one doesn't insist specifically on espresso or having steamed milk, the humble pourover is a good starting point. The pourover funnel, filters, and a decent hand grinder are relatively inexpensive and, with only a little practice, the output is as good as any americano produced by the average barista at 1/5 the price per cup.

[Rebelgecko]

That's pretty much why I got a semiauto machine. Is it the best espresso ever? Probably not. But I can make lattes in my underwear on Saturday morning that are still better and cheaper than what I'd get at Starbucks. Scratches the itch without being as demanding as a hobby.