ScubaPro A700 Second Stage

By BM on October 17, 2021

Not a bad regulator but honestly, not the undisputed, best performing second stage in my quiver. The A 700 is smaller and more compact than most. Quality materials, smooth controls. Orthodontic mouth piece is very soft and in my opinion, sub par. The body is all metal making this a tad on the heavy side and the mouth piece does not support the weight of the reg. By way of comparison, Atomic gives you a better orthodontic mouth piece standard on regs costing much less. I run this with a universal swivel making it even heavier exacerbating the problem created by a floppy mouth piece. My preference is the Aqualung comfort-bite which are stiffer and I plan on swapping it out. I use the AL c-bite on all regs as a matter of preference. The breath is, surprisingly, not as good as I expected for the price. It's OK but falls short of my Aqualung legend MBS and Atomic M1. Both deliver a smoother breath with less effort and more range from the breathing effort adjustments. Not to say the A 700 is bad, it's just not overly impressive. Turing the venturi control on the A700 to max with breathing effort adjustment open all they way produces very little difference from the min / closed settings. The venturi lever is small making it a bit harder to articulate with 5mm or thicker, gloves. The purge button is nice and smooth, but it will make your head explode if you hit it too hard. A light touch is all that is required to get all the purge you'll ever need. This is not good or bad mind you, just an observation. The A 700 is quiet in and out of the water. Full disclosure, my Atomic M1, Apex XTX 50 and Dive Rite all honk like manic geese out of the water regardless of what first stage they are run on. The A 700 and AL Legend MBS do not. Not sure this matters as you don't use regs out of the water, nor am I certain what it says about these regs either, but just another observation. Over-all this is fine regulator but if you are looking the best price to performance ratio, you may not find it in the A 700.

By Matt Marek on July 22, 2023 Verified Buyer

This solved all my problems. I was renting regulators from the various dives shops and the hoses would always get in the way and I would always have a slight restriction in air flow which caused more heavy breathing. I added a couple more inches to the hose and a swivel adaptor. Fixed the issue with regulator getting pulled out of my mouth. The air flow was incredible. Never felt any restriction. Would defiantly buy again.