well said jean

i totally agree, stock units can be modified, and will be modified due to various reasons.

However I dont think it is a particular clever idea to buy one stock unit (e.g. inspo or optima) only to modifie it straight away into something which looks like a rEvo.
If I had to buy a Rebreather now and did live in europe, i would give paul a call and pick up a hybrid rEvo form him.

However I do have an inspo, and I am happy without,
minus that it comes without HUD ( I do have an older classic), and minus that it is not a hybrid.

When I bought the unit some of these options were not available.
Agreeable I could flick it of possibly get NZ$7000, but by buying a new one would have to pay at least plus training, plus getting to teh training etc.
therefore modifing the unit by means of homebuilding can be a very valid option.
However saying that i will still use the help of professionals to do some of teh jobs. John (narked@90) has a great design and engeneering service,
the same with Martin (Tecme). Yes parts appear expensive on the first sight, but all that stuff is custom build to a fanstastic standard, and at the end still much cheaper than flicking teh unit off and buying new.

E.g. to mod the inspo into a hybrid will cost me aprox , HUD , having to run 6 cells - well 450 per year in extra.

If i compare that to .000 in upgrade costs, that is something like 15years to get to teh same cost.

On another note, if you homebuild something it becomes your baby - this can be very satisfying. For example I had my unit with teh new HUD in the pool yesterday and it performed floorless.
Ok only a short dive but still makes you feel good.
Yes spend several weeks working on the thing to get it to work as i wanted, did course quite a bit as had some shorting in the connectors, but hey sorted it out. Had to mod the DSV attachment as well, but now great to read even in strong backlight.