I am majorly excited that I can just order a faucet with the component parts that I like. Thanks forevermore to johnliu for pointing me toward T & S: http://www.tsbrass.com/ You can buy their product retail at http://www.chicagofaucetshoppe.com And you can download their catalogs, including the "mini pre-rinse" catalog, e.g., here: http://www.tsbrass.com/literature/ .

There actually even is a plumbingU you can get to, somehow, from T & S' website.

But I think I'll just ask here:

Ceramic v compression: On T&S' website they say that if your water is hard, compression is better. OTOH lots of people seem to be using ceramic valves. How hard is hard? Is this only an issue for commercial, high-volume applications? Would a residential application, even if water is hard (as in Los Angeles'), get by fine with ceramic? (which I gather is easier to operate).

Vacuum breaker: I gather this is to prevent backflow of water in the event that water pressure reverses - as in, I dunno, earthquake? I'm sure this matters in commercial applications; it's a health issue, right? A public health issue, essentially. Would one really care at home? Maybe ... cost isn't really a factor; is there any reason not to get the vacuum breaker? Is there a tradeoff with, say, efficiency? Chicago Faucets doesn't seem to sell them by default on the residential "mini pre-rinse" faucets, so that probably says something, but as everything is a la carte, it's easily added to the system. Curious if anyone has an opinion.

TIA