[drummerman1]

It's no secret, manufacturers do 'silent' revisions/updates to products. Reasons could be parts availability, change of production technology or/and review/test feedback. This seems more (but not exclusively) widespread with some Chinese manufacturers which seem to release products to be 'field tested' by the buying public.

I personally don't like the practice but as said, it has and will always happen. The problem is that it is not always easy to determine what you're getting without any product suffix(es) and often leads to confusion. The other thing is that second hand values can take a dive before an official new model is released. 3rd issue is pride of ownership or lack thereof once one finds out that the silently revised product is now 'night and day' 'better' than the (same model) iteration one acquired with their hard earned.

Manufacturers don't like to admit to silent revisions for some of the above reasons. Punters like to know what they get and where they stand. - Easier to just send a few products out again to some malleable ... reviewers which then (usually) say the previous review unit was 'probably' a pre-production unit ... seen that one? I'm sure you did.

It's a common way to improve (for whatever reason, read 1st paragraph) without introducing more substantial (read 'visible' and ... likely more expensive) revisions to warrant an official new model.

Should we be glad that these, let's call them 'more quiet' revisions happen? After all, one would assume you get a better/improved product ... or would we prefer a more open approach from manufacturers with easily accessible clear (time stamped) revision/update logs ... akin to software updates?

Going one step further, should revisions come with a model suffix?

I'd be interested in what you think.

Do you want to name a manufacturer or a product you know had silent updates?

 

[DigitalJust]

This is a good question. It's nice to know this kind of information. Like how 2021 lcd-x was a revision. Then i watched the Audeze factory tour and saw how they make everything in batches. While maaaaybe it would be cool to know this in the form of like, a product sub code or something...im not sure i want to know more details like...this batch of planars had some minute variation that...makes everyone think some crazy ish like 2021 lcd-x planar diaphragms that were made this year, when the day was right, are the ones to have and superior to the others.

I do like when companies make this information available or when they make it clear when there are revisions and why. Like...these dynamic drivers were made here in these years, here in these years, etc. Or things like pad changes. Clearly defined product updates are good.

If there are product suffixes, i kind of want it simple as possible. Like version 2. Or by year. If it got into finer detail...like software updates...like this is headphone version 3.5.2. I think I'd start to feel not so confident in a company if they had so much variation in a physical hardware product.

 

[Philimon]

Do you want to name a manufacturer or a product you know had silent updates?

It’d be more difficult to name one that didnt have silent updates.