Gussy-
It appears that you are looking for some general answers prior to asking for some more specific ideas. In general, most everything made by the major manufacturers is of good quality and will be reliable gear provided it is used within the diving enviroment it is designed for, and if it is properly cared for. Also, every choice you will be required to make as to a specific piece of gear will carry some sort of compromise when compared to another brand or even another model from the same line. Advice from your LDS may or may not be sound and you need to weed out the bad info from them as well. The availability of dive gear from deep discount online sources will influence your choices as well. A lot of LDS's in my area don't vend (and therefore recommend) Mares. This isn't really due to any lack of quality but rather because Mares allows far more "official" access to their gear over the internet. This impacts profit margins for the LDS's and some won't carry the brand for that reason. When it comes to the major brands, some people will rave about the gear and others will tell you it's garbage. From my experience, without being brand specific, I've used "cheap" stuff and "premium" gear and it all worked acceptably when used as intended. Also, some lines tend to be sold as a more exclusive brand within the dive community, just like you won't see "Ford" and Chevy" in the asame dealership. This is due to reasons such as agreements between a LDS and equipment distributor and also due to the inability of most shops to stock two competing major brands because of inventory cost requirements. Without much in the way of recommendations either for or against, here is a list of some major brands (in no particular order) and some info (per my memory only) for each company. Apologies to all if I miss a brand or misinform in some other way:
Mares-Italian company. Part of a larger sporting goods manufacturer that also makes "Head" and "Tyrolia" brands (skis, tennis rackets, etc). Mares also now owns the Dacor brand.
ScubaPro-part of Johnson Outdoors, in turn part of Johnson floor wax. Large sporting good base, including lines like Minnkota trolling motors. Officially, ScubaPro does not allow internet sales and also their prices tend to be somewhat controlled by their dealers. Also, distributes Uwetec dive computers in the US.
AquaLung-French company, I believe in turn part of AirLiquide (pressure cylinders and gas sales). Rather than a single brand, Aqualung, in the US, exclusively reps and distributes: Apeks (British manufacturer, mostly regs), Suunto (Finnish company, gages and computers) SeaQuest (regs, bc's, etc.) as well as the AquaLung line. Does't allow internet sales in the US. I've never seen AquaLung stuff next to ScubaPro's.
There are also some quality lines that don't appear to be as well represented in the market, partly because they are not represented by the previous large concerns. Partial list, all good stuff, would be: Poseidon (rep'd in the US by Trellborg/Viking which is a Scandinavian co. as is Poseidon), Halcyon (US co. in Florida), Zeagle (US co. in Florida), Oceanic (I think a US company, vast array of gear avail.), Atomic, Tusa (Japanese company?) Genesis, DiveRite, & OMS. Tons I forget at the moment but in general the gear from any of these comanies will work fine. It may be more important to you that the gear can be serviced locally so take that into consideration as well. If you start to do specific searches on this board for brands and models you'll have a weeks worth of reading.
