On Monday, July 30, 2018 at 8:18:57 AM UTC-7, JS wrote:
Used to own one. Loved the casual sounding audio. Also the variable dead band.
But it's been about 30 years! That was almost the Bronze Age. Many other cool things have happened since then.

6PK et al:
Yes, flight computers should have the ability to do more with shaping the audio vario, even though a simple LX V3 I have proved it can sound identical to a CA302 in climb mode with no sink tone. To me the 302 became the reference for audio vario understandability around the Industrial Revolution, and still hangs in there.
Audio setup should include dead bands for cruise and climb, waveform, modulation, center frequency, frequency extremes, interruption frequency and percentage for up and down, level adjustment by airspeed, and overall equalisation (like Air-Glide's "bass boost" to make up for a typical small speaker).
While we're at it, how abut the ability to play back samples? Examples:
Every x minutes someone significant in your life can remind you to drink.
Or at a selectable altitude, that person, Darth Vader, or anyone reminds you to turn on O2, with an "OK, got it" response from the pilot.

Installing 30-year-old electronics in a glider will have maintenance issues. In the business I'm in, people talk about the sound and feel of "retro" equipment, but tend to forget about the inconvenient stuff. Example: An analog mixing console may sound better than a digital one, but takes six people to lift and doesn't fit in narrow-body aircraft.
Jim
Jim
I'm not advocating the reintroduction of an old antique instrument, and you are absolutely right it would be a giant step backwards.
What I was merely suggesting was that some of these high tech whiz-bang manufacturers shouldn't have much trouble reproducing something that actually works-namely the audio that all seemed to like, as they are constantly knocking and copying each other off anyways.
I recently, about a year ago "updated" from my old trusty 302 to a ClearNav xc vario, which is just as trusty by the way, although I'm still not all that convinced that it is all that it was quacked out to be.
It has a number of audio functions, I'm still not sure which one I like best as non of them are what I would call outstanding, but they all do make noise.
What the old Rico had to offer at least in the audio side was different from the others and seemed to make sense ( but than I'm just repeating myself)…...