Are Revel and Paradigm Stuck?

it's funny because so many question ARC's updates, but when companies don't update they are stuck

The theory that Paradigm or Revel should be updating their top of the line models every other year or so is at odds with the marketplace and economic reality of the situation. The industry as a whole doesn't replace/update speaker models every other year. The only sector that does that is the theater receiver, for obvious reasons.

Dear Friends;

I owned and, for almost three years, loved the Paradigm Sig8 speakers. Three months ago, I sold the Paradigms and bought a pair of Revel Ultima Salon 2s. You’d have to hear them to believe what I’m saying but, it’s frankly very difficult to imagine how Revel could improve on this speakers performance. 

I think that when a good company hits what they consider to be their ceiling, they stay put for a while. I’m not saying that the Sig8s or the Salon 2s are ’the best speakers out there’ - how could that be the case? I am saying that with respect to the individual company’s performance to price calculations, their R&D capacity and their overall production objectives, there may be nowhere for these two companies to go - just yet. 

On my part, I’ve got nowhere to go. I was building my retirement audio system - built on the premise that, once I retire and travel becomes a greater priority, I will not be able to assemble this Salon, Ayre and AR system. I am, of course, interested in what these companies have planned but, from the point of view of my living room, it’s irrelevant. I have more than I need.

i should mention that Ayre is quite like Revel. Most of the Ayre line of electronics is years old. The company develops upgrades and owners can avail themselves of that service. When you have a product that is so good, you don’t need to replace it every year. It’s also the case that the yearly ’new model’ approach is to some degree, misleading. We cannot seriously believe that, in relation to is consumer models, Pioneer annually introduces discernible performance improvements. More likely, they’ve shifted the huge number of buttons around and added a few more. 

What's stuck? This gear still sounds better than the vast majority of new products.

Agreed. They can change the Salon 2 but how they could make a meaningful improvement in build or sound is beyond me. I wonder in amazement as to what all the guys giving theirs away on AGON are replacing them with. This is one to keep and at 59 I have had many high end speakers to include Wilson and Kharma. FWIW

I am fortunate to own Studio 2's and I've also heard Salon 2's. These are designs which I think Revel nailed pretty good. Are they stuck? Maybe they feel they can not make a meaningful improvement without going significantly upmarket.