So...
I've been diving since 1984. I've used quite a few rental regs and shop regs but aside from one Sherwood (which I would describe as a bad purchase) I've never owned a reg that was not an Aqualung ... until recently.
My first reg was given to me by my Uncle. An Aqualung Aquarius (ca. 1974). I still have it and still find that it breathes as well as 1/2 of the regs on the market. My second was a Sherwood Maximus. 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th were all Aqualungs (after I sold the Sherwood). I was becoming "brand loyal".
This year, however, I wanted to give one of my aqualungs to my daughter to use and my wife objected. She said, "you're going to give her some old junk to dive with".... and then it was silent for 30 seconds and she said, "actually, with all the tech diving you do... you shouldn't be diving with old junk either".
I tried to explain that the regs I had were fine (albeit older) but my best dive buddy was over and also said to my wife that she was right and I should do more to keep my kit up to date.
*sigh*
OK.... so some key decisions and a fucton of money later I retired several regs, got the Aqualung Legend LX supreme rebuilt from the ground up for my daughter (cost me 300 euros) because it was the most awesome reg I've ever had, and I bought 2 new regs.
These ones are both Apexs DS4/XTX40 combinations for my twin set. This is the first time in many years I haven't had an aqualung on my twins and I wanted to report on my initial findings. I'll admit at this point that I bought the Apex regs with reservations because despite the fact that I'm not normally "brand loyal" I had become a real Aqualung fan.
1) Characteristics
They make a different sound. Just like when you drive the same car for a long time it has its own sound..... Likewise a reg has a sound that gets burnt into your brain. When it makes the sound you expect, then you never notice it. As soon as the sound changes, even a bit.... all of our alarm bells go off.
The Apexs makes a very different sound than that legend does. Initially it sounds..... harsher.... louder. As you go deeper with them, through 30, 40, 50m the sound is also different than an aqualung at this depth. So you have to adjust your entire mental image of what it should sound like. This is (for a technical diver) *incredibly* distracting. It took me maybe 30 or 40 dives to reset that sound in my brain after having made well over a 1000 dives with the aqualung in my mouth.
2) Quality
I have used good, better, best, regulators in my time. My mind/body had adjusted to exactly how the aqualung worked. This was a danger. I often felt like I "forgot" that I was under water when I was diving. I still believe that the aqualung legend is probably the best regulator ever built with respect to work of breathing. When I first started using the XTX40 I felt that it needed "breaking in". It took 20 or 30 dives before I had the feeling again that could "forget" that I was under water. Part of this might have been related to the alarm bells I had from the way it sounded, but part of it I really do believe was real.... like it needed to be broken in. I've never had this with a regulator before and, again, I don't know if it was me or the reg, but I've heard this same feedback from other new users as well.
3) Suitability.
I've been diving with the DS4/XTX40 mostly in a technical context for the last season. Initially I needed to adjust to them but I believe that much of that may have had to do with me and not the regulator. At this point in time I feel that they are perfectly adequate regs for technical diving and I would recommend them (with consideration to a period of adjustment) as viable alternatives for the top end Aqualung regs.
R..
I've been diving since 1984. I've used quite a few rental regs and shop regs but aside from one Sherwood (which I would describe as a bad purchase) I've never owned a reg that was not an Aqualung ... until recently.
My first reg was given to me by my Uncle. An Aqualung Aquarius (ca. 1974). I still have it and still find that it breathes as well as 1/2 of the regs on the market. My second was a Sherwood Maximus. 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th were all Aqualungs (after I sold the Sherwood). I was becoming "brand loyal".
This year, however, I wanted to give one of my aqualungs to my daughter to use and my wife objected. She said, "you're going to give her some old junk to dive with".... and then it was silent for 30 seconds and she said, "actually, with all the tech diving you do... you shouldn't be diving with old junk either".
I tried to explain that the regs I had were fine (albeit older) but my best dive buddy was over and also said to my wife that she was right and I should do more to keep my kit up to date.
*sigh*
OK.... so some key decisions and a fucton of money later I retired several regs, got the Aqualung Legend LX supreme rebuilt from the ground up for my daughter (cost me 300 euros) because it was the most awesome reg I've ever had, and I bought 2 new regs.
These ones are both Apexs DS4/XTX40 combinations for my twin set. This is the first time in many years I haven't had an aqualung on my twins and I wanted to report on my initial findings. I'll admit at this point that I bought the Apex regs with reservations because despite the fact that I'm not normally "brand loyal" I had become a real Aqualung fan.
1) Characteristics
They make a different sound. Just like when you drive the same car for a long time it has its own sound..... Likewise a reg has a sound that gets burnt into your brain. When it makes the sound you expect, then you never notice it. As soon as the sound changes, even a bit.... all of our alarm bells go off.
The Apexs makes a very different sound than that legend does. Initially it sounds..... harsher.... louder. As you go deeper with them, through 30, 40, 50m the sound is also different than an aqualung at this depth. So you have to adjust your entire mental image of what it should sound like. This is (for a technical diver) *incredibly* distracting. It took me maybe 30 or 40 dives to reset that sound in my brain after having made well over a 1000 dives with the aqualung in my mouth.
2) Quality
I have used good, better, best, regulators in my time. My mind/body had adjusted to exactly how the aqualung worked. This was a danger. I often felt like I "forgot" that I was under water when I was diving. I still believe that the aqualung legend is probably the best regulator ever built with respect to work of breathing. When I first started using the XTX40 I felt that it needed "breaking in". It took 20 or 30 dives before I had the feeling again that could "forget" that I was under water. Part of this might have been related to the alarm bells I had from the way it sounded, but part of it I really do believe was real.... like it needed to be broken in. I've never had this with a regulator before and, again, I don't know if it was me or the reg, but I've heard this same feedback from other new users as well.
3) Suitability.
I've been diving with the DS4/XTX40 mostly in a technical context for the last season. Initially I needed to adjust to them but I believe that much of that may have had to do with me and not the regulator. At this point in time I feel that they are perfectly adequate regs for technical diving and I would recommend them (with consideration to a period of adjustment) as viable alternatives for the top end Aqualung regs.
R..
