I currently have a Titan LX from aqualung and paid a bit of money for it when I first got into diving from LDS. I see the Hog D1 is priced a lot lower than most other regs, I am curious why it is cheaper than many other regulators. I have seen good reviews of it and I am question why people spend so much on other regs, if this is a very good reg?
-Hostage
The Titan LX and the Hog D1 are perfect examples of completely conflicting and different philosophies.
On one hand, you have the Aqualung model. They take out full page ads every month in every dive publication, they pay people to use their equipment on photo shoots and spend an inordinate amount of money trying to ensure that their equipment is perceived as "high end". All of that cost is combined with R&D and then layered into a model where they only sell to shops via sales people. So on top of the marketing and R&D costs they also have to pay salaries and commissions. They tightly control how much the end shop sells their equipment for to help keep up the perception of the "high end" brand. I'm guessing that your LDS sold you this regulator after or through the course of an initial training? This is part of the LDS model.
On the other hand, Chris @ HOG takes known design concepts that are established and have been in use for a very long time by divers who are doing very big dives (far, far beyond those of the average vacation diver finishing up an open water course) and he's having them manufactured overseas to that spec. The R&D is minimal because there's no need for bells and whistles, just rock solid performance based on tried and true design concepts. Then he doesn't advertise. Go look for a HOG ad in SCUBA magazine (don't look hard, you won't find one). Further he sells direct to the shop/instructor/dealer who has to deal with the customer so there's no salaries or middlemen to mark things up. There's some emphasis on "value" but I'd say there's more emphasis on "reliability". I've breathed my HOG D1 at over 400 feet (bailed out, not breathing calmly). That's why I trust it and that's why I recommend it to my friends and my students.
Most people at the LDS can't discuss performance at extreme ends of the spectrum, much less confidently talk about their experience with the regulator you've got in hand there. So instead they tell you the pretty story about the "state of the art" that they're fed in brochures and marketing copy from the manufacturers (that all drive up the $$$ without delivering anything of value).
Ultimately you got a good regulator that will likely serve you well for years to come. To my mind you paid too much for it; but that's what you were designed to do. That's how Aqualung makes their money and how the shops stay in business. Maybe you'll love it enough to support them and pay it all over again next time, maybe you won't. There are a lot of variables that come into play in diving and cost is only one of them (I'd argue that it should be quite far down the list of priorities).
For me, I love HOG products because of the philosophy, the simple design, the fact that I can fix a problem on my own no matter where I am in the world and the price point just means I can own more of them - which has a whole slew of other practical applications for my personal situation (and doesn't just serve as a reason/method to spend less).
