Just a thought for those waiting for Valeton's NAM A2 support. Since most of Valeton's units are running 44.1kHz sample rate, most probably the A2 will be converted into Snaptone, which can be seen on Hotone's recent A2 update. Only the high end Ampero 2 units were able to run A2 Lite native, and strangely used more DSP than expected, which I think was due to resampling (current Ampero 2 units also use 44.1kHz).
I have a Pulze mini which implements A2 conversion even though the unit runs 48kHz. This update did not require a firmware update, because the A2 to Soundclone conversion is only done on the app. And just on quick listening, when I compared A1 and A2 on the Pulze mini, I can't really tell the difference since they're both converted.
I think NAM A2's real benefits are on the fine details and its efficiency to run on lower spec hardware, which are not really felt when they are already converted. NAM A1 is already pretty good when it comes to sound quality.
Now let's go back to Valeton. Theoretically they can implement the A2 conversion support by just updating the app, in the end it will still be converted to Snaptone which the unit already supports. A few months ago I compared the quality of Hotone's Soundclone (Pulze Mini) and Valeton's Snaptone (GP-150), and to my ears, Soundclone sounds better. You would think the same company which shares a lot of the same tech would use the same NAM conversion, right? I'm not really sure why it's different, unless Snaptone is meant to run on even lower spec hardware like the GP-5.
So, what I'm hoping for is Valeton to update the Snaptone format so it's closer to Soundclone quality. Most probably that would require a firmware update rather than just an app update. Based on some initial reviews of the Hotone update, some users opted to use NAM A2 Soundclone conversion (vs native) because it uses less DSP and not very far from the native sound. For a lot of current devices that use 44.1kHz, I think the competition will be on the quality of conversion to their narive capture format, like Mooer's MNRS, M-vave's AM4, Nux's DeepImage, and more recently Livtra's Resona. However it's not very wise for companies to invest on that for the long term since they would most probably use 48kHz on future hardware.
The other question is whether Valeton will implement NAM A2 Lite Native on the Valeton GP-150/180, which I'm speculating should be possible because it's their newer hardware and also runs 48kHz. But imagine how that would mess up their product line up if the GP-200 series will still rely on conversion. Personally I think that's one of the reasons why Valeton has been quiet. I wouldn't be surpised if they just implemented conversion on everything since it requires the least amount of explanation.
I'm honestly just excited for what's in the pipeline for all brands that should be coming in the next 1-2 years. Now that the NAM A2 standard is set and free to use for everyone. Just imagine the announcements on the next Music China Expo or Namm Trade Show.
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