Breville BDC400BSS Precision Brewer Drip Coffee Maker - 12 Cup Thermal Carafe, Brushed Stainless Steel, Customizable Brewing Options for Perfect Coffee - Ideal for Home, Office & Entertaining

I've only had this coffee maker for a few days now, but the resulting cups of coffee speak for themselves. I'd always wondered why coffee I made at home never tasted as good as coffee I'd had out, then saw some reviews for this (and similarly designed) coffee makers explaining that standard drip brewers boil the water as part of the mechanism for getting the water up to the grounds, and that boiling water burns the coffee and makes it bitter. Sure enough, the coffee from this maker isn't bitter in the slightest and tastes much, much better than anything I got from my previous ones (a Cuisinart, two Hamilton Beaches, and a Braun). It also makes coffee very quickly, I've got it on the "Strong" setting and it takes a little less than 10 minutes to brew a pot, compared to nearly 20 for the Braun it's replacing. I haven't tried "Fast" mode yet, but presumably that's even faster.It's quite tall, tall enough that I was worried about clearance issues between my countertop and the cabinets above, but it fits with a couple of inches to spare. Make sure to measure if you're going to be putting it in a similar place, this is easily the tallest coffee maker I've used.The UI is also one of the best I've used. There are only three controls - a start/cancel button, a dial that can be pressed like a button, and an "auto on" button, then with a pretty nice little LCD screen. The menus are pretty intuitive, certainly moreso than the Braun I was using. Setting up what strength I wanted my coffee and which filter type I was using was very easy. Setting auto-on was extremely easy. Hit the auto-on button, turn the dial until the LCD shows the time you want it to turn on at, hit the auto-on button again.Speaking of which filter type, it can be used both with basket and cone filters, it's got an adapter that goes into the grounds basket for cone filters. It also comes with a gold re-usable basket filter.There are a few reviews complaining that it's loud. I did not find that to be the case. It does have an audible pump, but it's about as loud as a quiet aquarium pump. It's significantly less loud than the burbling and popping from my previous coffee makers that comes from the water boiling. I live in a small townhouse and previous coffee makers would wake my wife and I up if we set it to brew before the alarm, whereas I can't hear this one at all in our bedroom. I also saw complaints about it demanding to be descaled mid-brew and refusing to work until it is descaled. I'm hoping those are similarly overblown, but will update the review if/when that becomes a problem.The one thing I don't like is the inability to set the amount of time it keeps coffee warm, or to extend that time if you want to keep enjoying the pot of coffee you made earlier. I'd love a way to be able to at least have a button that says "I'm not done drinking coffee, please keep it warm for longer." However, that seemed to be a feature lacking in pretty much all the nicer coffee makers.Now, if it can last longer than two years without breaking down, it will outlast all my other coffee makers. The one it's replacing made it 21 months before dying. Here's hoping.