Got my Prophet, Protege, and Drop-down ash catcher today all the way in Thailand. Everything was packed well and arrived safely in under a week.
iDB continues to be great answering all of my questions before and after he had my money.
Unfortunately Fortunately this means he's going to be getting a lot more of my money in the future.
Now onto a quick review.
I got a Prophet Color. It looks amazing, the base is very sturdy. With the ash catcher and my B2 hanging off of it it was rock solid. It's my first dry rig so still figuring out the temperatures on my B2 for it, but no doubt I'll get it dialed in. The only problem is the Protege is a beast and I don't want to use anything else. So eventually I'll get around to figuring out the Prophet.
Moving onto the Protege, just buy one. It rips, I'm extracting way more than I was on my old piece due to its limited restriction. It's got just a lil bit and it's perfect. I can also hit it longer since it's super smooth. Probably wasn't super fair to the Prophet to try the Protege first. On top of this the Protege is just a large impressive piece to look at, and with the ash catcher and B2 hanging off of it I have to say I feel like a connoisseur.
Overall I'd rate:
Customer Service 11/10
Protege 11/10
Prophet 9.5/10
iDB really went above and beyond helping me out from great shipping rates, to fantastic advice and I look forward to continuing to work with him.
The Protege is just a really impressive piece of glass.
The Prophet isn't going to be for everyone but I see it making me a believer in dry pieces.
Imo if you're on the fence between the prophet and the protege id get a Protege, you won't be disappointed. 90% chance you're going to be happy with a prophet as well but the protege is a sure thing. 0 regrets about getting both here.
Oh ya the ash catcher is super cool and makes everything a lot cleaner. I noticed it helped a fair amount on the Prophet as well.