I guess we shouldn't have been so demanding from the start - John wanted to please everybody and the result is an all-in-one FDAC with everything from CD replay, through many ADC options, Linux-based OS with support for whatever streaming exists in the world, DSP / room correction, AV bypass, color touchscreen with a custom UI doing just about everything in the world, master/slave interface and clocking logic for chaining multiple FDACs, external HDMI-connector-based expansion socket, internal DIC expansion slot/card, .... jesus christ, whatever happened to "
do one thing and do it well"?
Enter John's inability to give up on the expected features and wanting to deliver the Ultimate Best Platform ever created, ... and, well, you end up where we are now. The feature scope of FDAC is just too big for a team of 2-3 people to complete in any sensible amount of time.
...
I too had the "single box syndrome" back when I wanted the perfect laptop - capable of computer games, with high-res IPS screen, great keyboard (Thinkpad T30 style), two ethernet ports for network analysis, two HDDs, very sturdy design, etc. I was so frustrated by IBM selling Thinkpads to Lenovo and subsequently Lenovo screwing them up and I didn't know where to go, because each laptop on the market had significant drawbacks to my ideal single-box idea.
Then a friend told me: "Why don't you buy a desktop? You can use whatever monitor/keyboard/HDD/graphic card/CPU you want and upgrade it whenever you want.". My counter-argument was "But it isn't portable! It isn't single-box!" .. and then I subsequently realized that I don't need either of those. I bought and assembled myself a desktop and have been living happy ever since.
Single-box solutions never work great unless designed explicitly for you. It's an obsession causing constant frustration with a product that does everything, but nothing well. IIRC FDAC gained all these features because John found out (after ~2014 trip to China) that pushing multiple boxes into production would be too big of an overhead and integration into FDAC seemed easier.
Anyway, let's hope we'll reach the (front) light (of FDAC) at the end of the tunnel some day.