Hi,
I may be doing too much thinking but I am curious what are people's thoughts on hose stiffness. I was thinking if a hose were infinitely flexible taking a breath would constrict the hose to some degree before breaking the valve open and some inhalation effort would be lost to hose compression. A very stiff hose would be less likely to compress and hence not waste any valve breaking effort. I was thinking you want a very flexible diaphragm and some what stiff hoses. Is this something that is measurable? Do some of the really stretchy hoses exhibit a noticeable effect on breathing?