New aqualung Mistral double-hoses.
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The new Mistral is no comparison at all to the Kraken. It was poorly designed internally and the hoses leave a lot to be desired. It's only redeaming feature is the Titan first stage.
I assume you mean a DA Aquamaster, in it's original form it is no where near as good at the Kraken. It's first stage is unbalanced causing a varied cracking pressure across the range of tank pressures and the second stage is much less effecient. If you upgrade it by adding a Phoenix (or a Cyclone) first stage to balance the first stage, a HPR second stage to improve the operation of the second stage, a duck bill eliminator (DBE) to improve the exhaust and the latest diaphragm with careful tuning, you can get close to the preformance of a Kraken.
I assume you mean a DA Aquamaster, in it's original form it is no where near as good at the Kraken. It's first stage is unbalanced causing a varied cracking pressure across the range of tank pressures and the second stage is much less effecient. If you upgrade it by adding a Phoenix (or a Cyclone) first stage to balance the first stage, a HPR second stage to improve the operation of the second stage, a duck bill eliminator (DBE) to improve the exhaust and the latest diaphragm with careful tuning, you can get close to the preformance of a Kraken.
ams511
Contributor
I find it interesting that the new model Mistral is experiencing a renaissance of sorts, at least as far as eBay prices go. From what I remember they were only on the market a year or two and were then fire-saled off for around $300 or so because they had a bad reputation with double-hose divers. Single hose divers and dive shops really didn't know what to make of them.
A USD DA, even if converted to the latest components is not in the same league as the Kraken. While a Phoenix equipped DA with the HPR second stage and DBE (duckbill eliminator) is a top notch double hose, still, the Kraken exceeds it. No double hose regulator has ever compared to the Kraken, the exhaust effort is the lowest of any regulator I have tried to measure of any type and it can be tuned to crack at .4 inches. It is one of the few regulators I have found myself de-tuning.
The AL New Mistral lacks an effective Venturi due to poor engineering and apparently a total lack of understanding of (the physics) how to make a good double hose regulator on some engineers part. This is a huge faux pax and that is only the beginning. The hoses are too floaty and the design does not place the diaphragm correctly. It is a kludge of a double hose, a study in how not to do something right. It has no redeeming qualities other than serving as spare parts for the AL Titan LX, as fine a single hose regulator as the New Mistral is a poor double hose regulator.
N
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
I often wonder if the big heads at Aqualung are paying any attention to any of this?
They are the ones who pretty much ruled the DH market at one time in history, and then they come out with the abortion you mention above.
Now a group of enthusiasts comes up with something that is better than any DH reg in history.
That has to be like getting dog poo thrown in their faces.
I wonder how long it's going to take for the news to hit their board room?
They do not care, double hose is a niche market, a slowly expanding one but still small, composed mostly of explorationists, photographers and very experienced divers who really do not care how the rest of the world does it.
We all know who designed the Kraken, and we all know whose persistence made it happen with some small monetary support and occasionally physical support from a group of dreamers and finally the internet crowd funding concept. Who ever heard of such things even a few years ago.
The Kraken is the best twin hose regulator there has ever been and the good news, my bet, it is not a period at the end of a sentence, just a comma. Something like this is an expensive and complicated undertaking, and that is an understatement at best.
N
We all know who designed the Kraken, and we all know whose persistence made it happen with some small monetary support and occasionally physical support from a group of dreamers and finally the internet crowd funding concept. Who ever heard of such things even a few years ago.
The Kraken is the best twin hose regulator there has ever been and the good news, my bet, it is not a period at the end of a sentence, just a comma. Something like this is an expensive and complicated undertaking, and that is an understatement at best.
N
ams511
Contributor
Eric,
Diving is a niche market and I would assume double-hose diving is a much smaller niche so the big guys don't care and are happy to let companies like VDH have the market. Well at least until the market becomes bigger and more lucrative for them. I do not know what was in the collective mind of Aqualung, but I get a strong feeling the "new" mistral (must be about 12 years old now) was an attempt to capture past glory at the lowest possible cost. I also think they were designed for collectors rather than divers. I think AL may have been caught off guard when people actually started to dive them and complained about the lack of performance.
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
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