Which sucks because we know Yamaha has the resources to release new products every few years. Now is the time to get a new processor out.
I honesty think Yamaha must be going to wait until the HDMI 2.1 Chipsets fully support 48Gbps and without any issues or thermal problems. But I do hope they remove the tiny LCD screen and replace it with something larger on the new models. I really can't read the LCD display on our RX-A6A in our family room and I'm not sitting that far away from it. Have no issues reading the big display on our RX-A3080 in the Home Cinema room and the sitting positions are much further away. The tiny display is a fail in my opinion. Yes I am almost 63, and this was without my distance glasses....LOL
I also think I read somewhere that Yamaha stated that the RX-AxA & RX-VxA AVR Products would be long term products. Meaning there wouldn't be any annual model updates that we have come custom to. But do you think I can remember where I read this. The only thing I came remember was it related to the use of the Qualcomm. That being the single Qualcomm quad-core QCS407 with almost seven times the processing power of those in previous models.
I don't know the time context of Yamaha's statement that the RX-AxA & RX-VxA AVR Products would be long term products. But things may change over time. Yamaha initially intended to support QMS (Quick Media Switching) within the HDMI 2.1 specification. However, Yamaha later discovered that their new HDMI 2.1 AVR models cannot be updated to support QMS via firmware. That being due to an unforeseen hardware limitation caused by QMS specification change in HDMI 2.1a.
So Yamaha's release timetable for the RX-AxB & RX-VxB AVR Products may be brought forward because of the QMS. But I have a feeling they are just going to wait for HDMI 2.1 Chipsets to fully support 48Gbps without any issues.
I'm not sure Yamaha will ever support DIRAC. They have stated in the past that they only support YPOA, and that YPOA was tightly integrated into their Cinema DSP, and it is not possible to separate the two. I don't think this as directly in relation to DIRAC, but othering other Room Correction Systems apart from YPOA. I guess what they mean it would be too much work as they would have to start again. But they could if selecting DIRAC etc instead of YPOA disabled the use of their Cinema DSP. But perhaps they are not prepared to do that.