[BigBen]

If you are interested on diving it with a pressure gauge, BC inflator, and octopus, I would recommend getting an Aqua Master and converting it to a Phoenix Royal Aqua Master. The Aqua Master’s go for a lot less money that the Royals and if you are going to replace the firsts stage anyway, it doesn’t make any sense to spend the extra money.

As a DIY, I truly believe that you would have fun playing and diving a double hose. They are easy and fun to service and diving them is also a great experience. Now that we have plenty of parts for them, I have a hard time going back to using one of my many single hose regulators.

All the internal parts for the Royal Aqua Master are the same as in most Aqua Lung regulators (Conshelf, Titan, and even the newest Mikron), so parts availability will not be an issue long after most newer regulator will be recycled into plastic soda bottles.

The reproduction silicon hoses, diaphragms, mouthpiece valves, and duckbill exhaust valves will also last several decades without deterioration with minimal care (don’t let your cat chew on your new silicon hoses)… not that the old ones didn’t do well for 4 decades…only the duckbills used to be a real issue in the past.