Clayton was just at Pacific Audio Fest, looking good and working in the new sales role.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ynYyemBSFEIt sounds as if a) Spatial Audio Lab's day-to-day management is handed off to folks who have been part of the company for a long while, so b) this frees Clayton up to keep working on aspects that he is good at and enjoys while easing what was no doubt a hefty workload due to the company's success.
Clayton visited GR Research and identified the potential for the new driver in the Q6 to replace (or improve on) the discontinued M3 Sapphire driver. It doesn't seem like he has stopped providing input or ideas on new product design.
The introduction of the Don Sachs amps and a premium crossover version of the X series are also excellent expansions of what Spatial offers.
It seems that a) Spatial is keeping an extremely good $5k speaker in the lineup and b) they are continuing to innovate. I wouldn't be surprised if they return to earlier thoughts of a sub-$5k speaker, adding an open baffle sub-woofer for folks who have existing speakers from other manufacturers, or some other innovations that Clayton could not get to when wearing all the hats.
If you look back at the state of hi-fi in the '70s and '80s, there seems to me to be a wider selection of high-quality components at more accessible prices than there has ever been. Vinyl has had a resurgence, tubes are still going strong, and new technologies like GaN are giving us new options.
Salk and Spatial built resilient and viable companies that are being continued in the spirit of their founders. They have not been bought and gutted to market the name like Harman Kardon, Polk, and any number of other companies of the past. That seems both welcome and hopeful news.