Quote: (Originally Posted by
vermin)
Hi all, i'm a new diver and just been reading up a bit on the whole dir thing! It seems to make sense to go down that route. I originally was going to get Apeks xtx 100's as my regs but have been reading a lot about ds4/xtx40 regs. Would the 100's be ok? What are the por's and cons? Ps I have tmd (jaw problems) so am looking for lightweight designs which have good routing as to not pull on mouth so much. Also prob will use jax mouthpiece. is this all still poss and be in line with dir?
Why the XTX? If you're going down a DIR route (thoroughly recommended, by the way!), you don't need reversible regs, hence the TX or ATX series would do everything you need and are (presumably) cheaper. (Having said that, I've just had a quick google and no-one seems to do ATX anymore. Have they been withdrawn?)
The TX series second stages are fairly huge, so an ATX is probably better, if you can find them.
DS4 first stages route fine for both singles and twinsets.
FWIW, I've got 5 DS4 first stages, an ATX50 as my backup (ATX because it's smaller and -50 because it can have the cracking pressure turned up when not in use to minimise risk of freeflow) and TX40s on everything else (because they're cheaper and work just as well as the ATX series!)
I'm not sure whether there's any real benefit in a -100 vs a -40 or -50. They all share the same internal parts.
I see no benefit in getting the "Status" first stage varients I see it, as someone termed it over the weekend, "a solution looking for a problem".
Not sure about the Jax mouthpiece - I get grief from one of my buddies because he feels that the Apeks comfobite mouthpieces makes him want to gag, so I'm not sure how people might feel about getting 2" of mouthpiece edge. On the other hand, in a gas sharing situation, people ought to be grateful for what they receive!
Hope this helps.
Iain