I emailed John about the akm website and got this response:
“Hi Russel,
We are in direct contact with our AKM sales people (Europe) and the feedback from them is very limited supply of AK parts... I'm not sure who this company is that claims they have nearly 100K pcs of AK4137 in stock (I kinda suspect something fishy as I would have expected AKM to tell us about this stock - especially as the company claims to be a part of AKM) - I've have just emailed both AKM directly and the link forward and wait to better understand the situation - I'd be happily amazed if the situation is true.
The "official" line from AKM to our purchasing department (November 19th) is that "AK chips will not be available for at least a year"
Also, is incorrect to say that its easy to fab AKM parts at different Fabs (AK4137 is a pure digital part so this could in theory be moved to a different line) - the AKM mixed signal parts are a very unique mixed signal process hence the real problems the factory fire has caused + the recertification of the new line once its installed...
This past week I've spent some time on a different solution which can be used - it will require an extra FPGA, I've ordered the FPGA development kit and will see if I can implement this solution on my own (over Christmas) - once the Clock PCB has been issued.
BR,
John”
So it’s good that he replied.