I'm not going to pee on the Hog owner's parade to any great extent. But here are my observations:
Hog regs sell at a comparatively low price point. At that price point it's really difficult to get OEM parts that all meet the tolerances required to get consistently high performance from reg to reg. Consequently while the finish of the parts may look fine, that's not the most important indicator of quality and you'll see greater variation form reg to reg.
Any time you have a second stage with an adjustment knob that does not include a micro adjust, the spring tolerance (dimensions, force, rate of compression, etc) is extremely important if you are to get maximum performance from the second stage, and it's hard to nail those tolerances without buying large batches of springs and hand selecting the ones with the required traits. Scubapro accomplishes that by buying lots of springs, hand picking them for the G250V, and then using the rest in other models with a micro adjust feature. I'm open to hearing what HOG does.
I'm also a bit fussy about things like tolerances when I'm dealing with life support equipment I may be using 3/4 of mile back in a cave and/or 200' deep and I just can;t bring myself to trust a reg made with parts that probably come of the left hand side of the production distribution / quality control curve.
On the other hand, most companies have lower price point regs where the tolerances may slide a bit, so I have no issue comparing Hog regs favorable to other low end regs. In that regard they do offer an advantage of using / incorporating design features normally only found on higher end regs - but you still have to keep the quality control and consistency aspects in mind, when comparing them to similar high end reg designs.
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As noted above, I initially liked the C300 a lot when I got to play with an early model at a serviced clinic, but after I finally got one 6 months later, it has not impressed me as much. My impression was that Scubapro's goal was to create a very well made high performance unbalanced second stage, primarily to appeal to the European market where unbalanced second stages are preferred. In that regard it would not be comparable to a low end wider tolerances second stage like the R395, etc but rather would have quality similar to the high end Scuabpro second stages. And in fact that's important in the C300 given that the lever and air barrel design require very precise tolerances and high levels of quality assurance to ensure high performance. (The X650 used a similar lever and air barrel without QA inspection of each and every lever, with the result the the regs were not consistent and ended up being recalled.)
However given that mine is still good but less than stellar in it's performance in term soy cracking effort, I have doubts. My just could be a lemon with a single out of spec part, or it could suggest a larger QA issue and an effort to reduce the cost by accepting springs, etc that don't hold to sufficiently tight tolerances. As noted above, I am picky about that stuff.
As someone suggested above, I'd also recommend the Mk 17 G250V. The Mk 17 is the best diaphragm first stage currently available from any company, and in particular for cold water. And I think the G250V is still the best second stage available from any company in terms of overall durability and inhalation performance. And as noted above, Scubapro holds them to the very tight tolerances needed to get peak performance from this design.
Hog regs sell at a comparatively low price point. At that price point it's really difficult to get OEM parts that all meet the tolerances required to get consistently high performance from reg to reg. Consequently while the finish of the parts may look fine, that's not the most important indicator of quality and you'll see greater variation form reg to reg.
Any time you have a second stage with an adjustment knob that does not include a micro adjust, the spring tolerance (dimensions, force, rate of compression, etc) is extremely important if you are to get maximum performance from the second stage, and it's hard to nail those tolerances without buying large batches of springs and hand selecting the ones with the required traits. Scubapro accomplishes that by buying lots of springs, hand picking them for the G250V, and then using the rest in other models with a micro adjust feature. I'm open to hearing what HOG does.
I'm also a bit fussy about things like tolerances when I'm dealing with life support equipment I may be using 3/4 of mile back in a cave and/or 200' deep and I just can;t bring myself to trust a reg made with parts that probably come of the left hand side of the production distribution / quality control curve.
On the other hand, most companies have lower price point regs where the tolerances may slide a bit, so I have no issue comparing Hog regs favorable to other low end regs. In that regard they do offer an advantage of using / incorporating design features normally only found on higher end regs - but you still have to keep the quality control and consistency aspects in mind, when comparing them to similar high end reg designs.
----
As noted above, I initially liked the C300 a lot when I got to play with an early model at a serviced clinic, but after I finally got one 6 months later, it has not impressed me as much. My impression was that Scubapro's goal was to create a very well made high performance unbalanced second stage, primarily to appeal to the European market where unbalanced second stages are preferred. In that regard it would not be comparable to a low end wider tolerances second stage like the R395, etc but rather would have quality similar to the high end Scuabpro second stages. And in fact that's important in the C300 given that the lever and air barrel design require very precise tolerances and high levels of quality assurance to ensure high performance. (The X650 used a similar lever and air barrel without QA inspection of each and every lever, with the result the the regs were not consistent and ended up being recalled.)
However given that mine is still good but less than stellar in it's performance in term soy cracking effort, I have doubts. My just could be a lemon with a single out of spec part, or it could suggest a larger QA issue and an effort to reduce the cost by accepting springs, etc that don't hold to sufficiently tight tolerances. As noted above, I am picky about that stuff.
As someone suggested above, I'd also recommend the Mk 17 G250V. The Mk 17 is the best diaphragm first stage currently available from any company, and in particular for cold water. And I think the G250V is still the best second stage available from any company in terms of overall durability and inhalation performance. And as noted above, Scubapro holds them to the very tight tolerances needed to get peak performance from this design.
Probably my MK25 and MK20(latest with a composite piston) give about the same but not the diaphragms.
