First Reg Set

[BoltSnap]

I think this notion is one of the biggest myths of ScubaBoard. It's the same reason that is often given to support buying a BP/W for recreational single tank diving.

In reality, I think the vast majority of people who go tech (and this is just my own anecdotal and very limited perspective) never realize the purported benefit being described here.

If they go tech, they end up buying new regs. They don't just buy a 1st stage and some hoses and repurpose their existing single tank reg set.

If they go tech, they may start off just buying a new wing and using their existing BP and harness. But, it doesn't take long before they end up with a second BP and harness.

I'm not saying these things are true for every single person who goes into tech. It just seems like it does apply to the vast majority.

Anyway, personally I would not steer anyone to or away from a particular reg set for single tank, recreational diving based on any possible plan for tech diving in the future.

In this particular case, I would (again) say that either one of the OP's options would work fine. *I* would buy the Mk 25/S600 if it's less money. Otherwise, the DST/XTX50. And I would get a matching 2nd stage to whatever I bought, to use as the octo.

Agree 100% (this is starting to get scary )

The amount of misinformation concerning this matter on SB is piled high and deep indeed. Equipment for technical diving is on one side of the storage room and the equipment for recreational diving is on the other side of the room and the two don't get mixed at all! Regulators, BC's etc. used for recreational diving don't get recycled for technical diving and the other way around is just the same.

 

[taimen]

Why not? If you own several regulators (single set, doubles, stages etc.) it should be wise and clever to use a model that works in any application. That redundancy also makes a great save a dive kit. I do not have two sides of a storage room available. Heck, I don't even have a storage room dedicated to dive equipment. I also pay full price for my equiment. I guess BurhanMuntasser and stuartv are pro or at least affiliated with a diveshop. Thus able to get equipment with reduced prices and so on.
Don't get me wrong. I would love to buy a lot of equipment

 

[Centrals]

Choose the regs carefully right from the beginning and you won't need dedicated set for either rec or tec dive.
Apeks DS4 or DST + 40/50 2nd stage(difference is the adjusting screw).

I only buy equipment if I NEED it not because I want it.

 

[BoltSnap]

Why not? If you own several regulators (single set, doubles, stages etc.) it should be wise and clever to use a model that works in any application. That redundancy also makes a great save a dive kit. I do not have two sides of a storage room available. Heck, I don't even have a storage room dedicated to dive equipment. I also pay full price for my equiment. I guess BurhanMuntasser and stuartv are pro or at least affiliated with a diveshop. Thus able to get equipment with reduced prices and so on.
Don't get me wrong. I would love to buy a lot of equipment

If you are a technical diver and own your technical diving equipment, it will be very difficult to imagine that you can store your tech. diving equipment in your spare bedroom closet in addition to your recreational equipment assuming that you have full set of each with all of the do dads that go with them as a technical and recreational divers would.

I buy my equipment at whatever prices everyone else pays for them and a lot more due to shipping costs and extreme devaluation of our currency, my cost is actually 8X what you pay for it since our currency went down in value by a factor of 8 since 2014. I buy the right tools for the right job and I don't mess around especially when it comes going beyond recreational diving limits. One side of the store room, closet, floor or even garbage bin, one for recreational and one for technical, they don't mix.

 

[stuartv]

Why not? If you own several regulators (single set, doubles, stages etc.) it should be wise and clever to use a model that works in any application. That redundancy also makes a great save a dive kit. I do not have two sides of a storage room available. Heck, I don't even have a storage room dedicated to dive equipment. I also pay full price for my equiment. I guess BurhanMuntasser and stuartv are pro or at least affiliated with a diveshop. Thus able to get equipment with reduced prices and so on.
Don't get me wrong. I would love to buy a lot of equipment

I am affiliated with a dive shop. Now. But, when I got into technical diving and bought my doubles and deco regs, I was not. I bought those regs (and my 3 BPs and numerous wings) before I ever started DM training (which is what brought me to being affiliated with a shop).

Nor am I remotely made of money. I am possibly the King of shopping and finding good deals.

But, as an example, regs are one of many things in scuba that are often sold in bundles for much cheaper than individual prices. If you buy a single tank reg set today and then want to buy just a single 1st stage later, to make it all into a doubles reg set, it is usually way more expensive than if you had bought a doubles reg package right up front. You would end up with a decision of "spend $300 on this first stage (plus more for hoses of the right lengths) or $600 on this complete package with 2 of everything and all the right hoses and SPGs." At which point, most people would just spend the extra.

 

[ams511]

$500 for a second stage? Wow...unless I'm mistaken or it's recently changed SP will not sell just a 600Ti second stage. I was refused when I was inquiring some months back and told currently the only way to get a 600Ti was to buy a reg set.

I am not pulling your leg, I found the price at Leisure Pro. If you want it with the MK-25 Evo it is $819.00 or $2,200 with the titanium MK-25.

 

[ams511]

Another reason why Scubapro is becoming the dinosaur in the room. Great quality, but just not picking up on the changing paradigm.
How many LDS' will they take down as millennial divers realize they can get better services online? This is China/Taiwan's triumph - don't service it, just buy a new one.

Back in the days when Leisure Pro was a grey market seller people used to do the same thing. You could buy the regulator at a bit more than half price use it for several years and then fleebay it for about what you paid for it. Same thing when Scubastore used to ship to the U.S.

I don't understand why the big name scuba gear is so much less expensive in Europe than here. I remember years ago when Hog first hit the market and people were commenting the regulators can't be any good because of the price and you get what you pay for, blah, blah, blah. But in actuality a Apeks set was around the same price in Europe. So yes a decent regulator could be sold for $200.

 

[ams511]

I think this notion is one of the biggest myths of ScubaBoard. It's the same reason that is often given to support buying a BP/W for recreational single tank diving.

In reality, I think the vast majority of people who go tech (and this is just my own anecdotal and very limited perspective) never realize the purported benefit being described here.

If they go tech, they end up buying new regs. They don't just buy a 1st stage and some hoses and repurpose their existing single tank reg set.

If they go tech, they may start off just buying a new wing and using their existing BP and harness. But, it doesn't take long before they end up with a second BP and harness.

I'm not saying these things are true for every single person who goes into tech. It just seems like it does apply to the vast majority.

Anyway, personally I would not steer anyone to or away from a particular reg set for single tank, recreational diving based on any possible plan for tech diving in the future.

In this particular case, I would (again) say that either one of the OP's options would work fine. *I* would buy the Mk 25/S600 if it's less money. Otherwise, the DST/XTX50. And I would get a matching 2nd stage to whatever I bought, to use as the octo.

I agree with most of what you are saying. Probably the biggest myth on ScubaBoard is that BP/W is a cure-all for poor diving skills which it isn't. The second is that a BP/W is this adaptable system that you can move from single to double tanks with ease. That is also false. The only reusable part is the plate which is inexpensive.

As far as regulators go, I agree with Taimen. If someone is going into tech there is no way around buying equipment, we all know that. However, I do believe (as I suspect you do also) that there is an advantage to standardization. Once you start accumulating more and more regulators you will want to service them yourself unless you have a cheap source of service. If you have the same regulators or regulators from the same family, you only need two parts kits and one set of tools. If you have different models then you need more kits and tools.

 

[BoltSnap]

Back in the days when Leisure Pro was a grey market seller people used to do the same thing. You could buy the regulator at a bit more than half price use it for several years and then fleebay it for about what you paid for it. Same thing when Scubastore used to ship to the U.S.

I don't understand why the big name scuba gear is so much less expensive in Europe than here. I remember years ago when Hog first hit the market and people were commenting the regulators can't be any good because of the price and you get what you pay for, blah, blah, blah. But in actuality a Apeks set was around the same price in Europe. So yes a decent regulator could be sold for $200.

Because it is made in Europe and it will cost more in shipping and tariffs once it is in the US? It also has to do with currency exchange rate fluctuations.

 

[taimen]

Shipping costs to US do not really make any significant difference compared to shipping within Europe.
I do not know about duties when importing to US.
Importing scuba equipment into EU from US has 2.7% import duty. Usually these are bilateral so I would not expect much higher duty when importing from EU to US. But exact information would be really interesting to know.

I guess price difference is mostly related to marketing strategies. Apeks regulators seem to be placed in premium segment in the US while in EU they are priced more competitively in the mid range category.