I just noticed that Vesper is selling a Cortex unit that does not incorporate
VHF but incorporate a built-in
antenna splitter. It is possible that they might drop the VB-8000 from their line-up as the Cortex without VHF sort of occupies the same spot in their lineup, but IF they did I'd guess they would maintain the XB-6000 for the
price point and the Vision2 as it has its own display so differs significantly. On the other hand they may keep the XB-8000 as it is cheaper, though less feature rich than the Cortex.
In any case I have found Vesper's customer support, both from HQ in
New Zealand and from their
USA office, to be very good, and if the XB-8000 fits your needs I wouldn't worry about it being discontinued. I currently own a Vision1, which is discontinued, but they still provide excellent support for it. I just recently did a firmware upgrade and received help with them to clear an old MMSI.