I saw the new VAL at Arlington. I got the impression it was on the market. I chatted with the guy for quite awhile, and pointed out that I wouldn't buy one until he figgered out a way to make it a slide-in replacement for the 760.
Hard to see how that would be feasible, the 760 is nearly a half inch taller. The way I see it, a pair of the model 200 radios will fit in less space than most single comms currently installed in 150-152's. I have a pair of the Garmin SL40's, they are 1.3 inches tall each, same as the Icom and King KY-97A. That is previously the smallest form factor.
The Val 2000 radios are sheer simplicity, with manual squelch, but they do have dual readouts, and flip flop frequency exchange. 99% of the time that's all I do with my comms, preset the next freq, and flip flop. I'm sometimes annoyed by the automatic squelch, and I rarely use the stored frequencies. Once in a great while I will monitor the standby freq, but I really have no real need for that feature because I have a second comm for that purpose.
Ahem. Problem is at $2,600 a pair, The Val 2000's are not that great of a value. I paid about $3,000 for a pair of the Garmins, and they are obviously a superior radio.
If I only had one comm radio, I'd choose the Garmin SL40. Otherwise if I had to do it over again, I'd probably install a pair of the Val 2000's, purely based on their simplicity and small size.
I planned to post a quick summary of all the available comms here as a reference, but will do that in the Avionics area instead, because this topic will eventually get moved down and lost in the shuffle here in Buyers & Sellers.
