But to that I say, the modeling of the Fractal as almost evolved to a point now where further firmware updates are not that nessacery, meaning they are providing diminishing returns, more & more so as time goes on and the unit reaches perfection. So when you are at that point there's nothing that really needs updating anyway. At least from my point of view, because all I care about is can you get a 1965 Super Reverb Tone? And can you get a Van Halen Plexi tone? As long as those two amps are nailed, EVERYTHING else the unit does is nothing more but icing on the cake. I don't think the Fender & Marshall tones in the Fractal are going to get much more realistic than they already are at present moment. Therefore, I don't really care if Line 6 or whoever made a clone product of the Fractal but put their name on it and sold it for a lot less, but offered no further firmware updates.
I think if Cliff struck a deal with a company that has far deeper pockets than he has, to where he sold the unit to them, it'd be a win/win for everyone. Cliff then would have more money than he will probably ever make on his own, although I'm sure Cliff is literally a Millionaire by now, net worth. Cliff would make huge money, a huge lump sum and a small percentage off of future units sold, then he'd have the rest of his life free to do nothing but enjoy doing other things non fractal related. And we would see the unit mass produced and sold in every guitar center, sweetwater, musicians friend, every music store. It would become as common as a Line 6 Pod or a fender or marshall amp.
I think Cliff would be smart to sell his company to a large corporation for maximum profit in the very near future.
Otherwise, it's just a matter of time before Line 6 or someone has basically reversed engineered the Fractal and cloned it 99% and can mass produce it for $1,000 or less. Those computer parts in it will only lower in price as time goes on, meaning it should be cheaper to produce them in another year or two.
If he doesn't sell out to someone, then the masses will get 99% of what he has to offer in a competing unit for probably half the price that he sells them for. Then where will he be? Only selling to a small minority of people that care about the prestige of the Fractal name?
All I'm really saying is, modeling technology has pretty much reached a ceiling, it is pretty much nailing exactly what it's supposed to be modeling, can't do any better than that. And all this time Fractal has really had a monopoly on the market because Cliff was the first to achieve this realism in modeling, so that's why we've had to pay such ridiculous prices. (And yes, I am about to send Cliff $2,500 for the XL Plus at the end of July as long as nothing changes in my life between now and then) SOON... Cliff will be forced to lower the price on his Flagships, or the majority of consumers will get a different brand name for way less money, even if the Fractal remains 1% better in quality etc.
It's not anything scared, that black box. It's nothing more than a computer. A bunch of wires, and circuits etc on a PCB board. The unit probably only costs $500 to manufacture with cheap labor and wholesale prices bought in bulk quantities. So a killing of profit is being made. Of course Cliff had to pour a huge investment initially into this whole thing and he had to invent it and dream up all the ideas and research etc, so I see where he's coming from.
But it would be so beautiful for a larger company to buy him out, then they could mass produce & mass market it, and sell it for rock bottom prices but still make a good profit, because they never had to deal with the initial time & investment of inventing it.
That would be so beautiful.
Then, we could all get Fractal technology at the lowest price humanly possible.
