The only ones I could see that could potentially fit that bill is their 'HQ' range e.g. http://www.espressoparts.com/EPW10813. If they're what you mean, no I've not tried them but I can offer a few observations. Reading about the development of the VST baskets, it seems early on they realised the flaws that existed in common baskets designs, so started from the ground up to build a set of baskets that eliminated those flaws. Hole pattern / size / shape is a big part of VST's focus but there are other factors like vertical walls and holes running right to the edge of the basket to ensure a consistent water flow through the basket, angle of curves in the basket, post-production measurement, consistency from unit to unit etc, all of which make it a rather different design to most others out there. This is significant because EPNW say their units are based on pre-existing designs, and they've used this laser process to tidy up the holes. This is evident because the three different sizes they offer are all different shapes, and two are ridgeless while the other is ridged. They're obviously not supposed to be a comparable set like VST's, but tizzied up versions of designs they already offer. The EPNW unit in the link also tapers in quite markedly and there's a fairly wide unpunched margin around the flat part of the basket before the hole pattern starts. Both of these go against the 'consistent water flow' mantra built into the design of the VST's. So even if the holes are improved, the shape of the basket itself is still compromised which doesn't sound a great starting point to any new product. It's impossible to know quality of materials from photos, but I can compare VSTs to Synesso baskets. My ridgeless Synesso double weighs 28.4g; the 18g VST (which is the closest in depth) weighs 33.1g. Even the much-shallower 15g VST is more, at 32.2g (FWIW the 22g VST is a whopping 36.6g). I only mention that because the EPNW units are half the price of the Synessos and 1/4 of the VSTs, so I have to wonder about the likely quality of materials and build of the EPNW baskets... Car buffs will know a big exhaust can give a performance improvement over a factory system but doesn't turn the car into a Porsche (unless it's one already! 😉). While I'll reserve my judgement until someone does a taste / quality test, my guess is the EPNW may offer an improvement over regular baskets, but I doubt they're in the same camp as the VSTs in terms of quality, consistency and longevity. Greg P.S. For disclosure purposes I do sell VST baskets, but anyone could draw the same observations from the information currently in the public domain.
