Looking to Change my First Stage Out

[muddiver]

Just how deep are you planning on breathing air anyway?

Personally I would just buy a whole new reg: scubapro, atomic, diverite, salvo, or Apeks would all be fine. Go with SP or Atomic pistons if you like their hose routing and don't mind parts buying hassles. Go with DR, Salvo or apeks for easier parts sourcing but a bit more convulted hose routing on doubles.

Ok Mr. Money Bags, why don't you just front me $1000 so I can re-outfit my self with a brand new regulator setup.

I can't really comment on the K-M 2nd but its seems a bit odd to build your entire kit selection around a 2nd stage. From what I can tell the K-M 2nd is a fairly ordinary looking balanced 2nd, nothing that can't be readily duplicated (performance wise) by any of the recreational brands above.

The K-M second stage will blow away any of the "recreational" products because it was originally designed to be used on a commercial diving helmet made for supplying a diver doing hard work at depth with a unlimited gas supply, not a SCUBA regulator attached to a high pressure, limited supply of gas. Also, it is not just a simple reguletor design. It is fully adjustable to supply a high or lower flow at depth. There are not other regulators that I know of that provide that, most are just adjustable venturi vanes or some other gadget.

If you are heart set on the K-M 2nd, why not just get the K-M balanced piston first stage and have a matching unit? From what I can tell from the schematics, its got a LP port on the "bottom" which should make its hose routing on doubles similar to the SP and Atomics.

I guess you didn't bother reading that last sentance on my last post.