First a polite request. @patcam and @midi we do have a 'Problems with Core Infinity' thread. Anyone in the future who has a similar issue to yourself will probably look there in hope of finding a solution. Why not post there? Plus, when you do get the new board up and running please come back and tell us your listening impressions here. 
@Wdw - I have to say that I was fascinated by your post, and @Mr_Bill's subsequent question 'If you are listening via AES input - how would the installation of the CI board affect that? Is it the software change?' First to say, maybe it is indeed the software change. We have not had a firmware update for a while, maybe Devialet have tweaked something in the firmware that is yielding good results with the Pro. Based on past firmware changes, this is entirely possible. Another thought is maybe it is hardware related? Personally I think this is highly unlikely, in that I would expect the AES/EBU input to work as it should even with the Core Infinity board removed. @ogs has speculated (and he made it clear in his post that he was just speculating) that maybe the alleged 'Super Clock' on the CI board might be somehow re-routed to provide it's goodness elsewhere within the Devialet. Maybe it is, but I suspect this is unlikely. Indeed, if the CI board clock was acting as a 'reclocker' for the AES/EBU input, which is a synchronous input, then it could actually limit performance with the very best sources. Consider that AES/EBU is an AES3 synchronous protocol input, it is therefore extracting the clock signal from whatever is feeding it. This is why devices like the Mutec MC3 can offer improvements. So if you have someone using an absolute top end reclocker, say a Mutec REF10 with MC3+USB and then is the CI board was subsequently reclocking, it would only make things worse. With the best will in the world, the CI clock is unlikely to be as good as a £3K Mutec clock. Another possibility is that it could be good old fashioned expectation bias, quite possible, it can be a very powerful beast, but based on the clarity of Wdw's words, I would tend to think not in this case. Could it be anything else? I do have a final theory here, there was some past speculation that worried that adding a powerful, possibly noisy, computer board into our terribly delicate and sensitive Devialets could cause some issues with electrical noise creeping in where it should not. Lets assume this is indeed the case, users then report SQ improvements, maybe this is because the supposedly negative impact of the CI board actually produces euphonic results. Again, highly unlikely I think, it's just the last possible thing that I can think of!
Much waffle from me, but this really makes me wish that we had a little more technical information from Devialet with respect to exactly what the CI board does. How it otherwise integrates with the rest of the amp, implications for the new USB input, implications for the other inputs, implications of recent firmware / software implementation, I could go on. To be honest, we have never needed one of Devialet's nice white papers more than we do now.
@Wdw - I have to say that I was fascinated by your post, and @Mr_Bill's subsequent question 'If you are listening via AES input - how would the installation of the CI board affect that? Is it the software change?' First to say, maybe it is indeed the software change. We have not had a firmware update for a while, maybe Devialet have tweaked something in the firmware that is yielding good results with the Pro. Based on past firmware changes, this is entirely possible. Another thought is maybe it is hardware related? Personally I think this is highly unlikely, in that I would expect the AES/EBU input to work as it should even with the Core Infinity board removed. @ogs has speculated (and he made it clear in his post that he was just speculating) that maybe the alleged 'Super Clock' on the CI board might be somehow re-routed to provide it's goodness elsewhere within the Devialet. Maybe it is, but I suspect this is unlikely. Indeed, if the CI board clock was acting as a 'reclocker' for the AES/EBU input, which is a synchronous input, then it could actually limit performance with the very best sources. Consider that AES/EBU is an AES3 synchronous protocol input, it is therefore extracting the clock signal from whatever is feeding it. This is why devices like the Mutec MC3 can offer improvements. So if you have someone using an absolute top end reclocker, say a Mutec REF10 with MC3+USB and then is the CI board was subsequently reclocking, it would only make things worse. With the best will in the world, the CI clock is unlikely to be as good as a £3K Mutec clock. Another possibility is that it could be good old fashioned expectation bias, quite possible, it can be a very powerful beast, but based on the clarity of Wdw's words, I would tend to think not in this case. Could it be anything else? I do have a final theory here, there was some past speculation that worried that adding a powerful, possibly noisy, computer board into our terribly delicate and sensitive Devialets could cause some issues with electrical noise creeping in where it should not. Lets assume this is indeed the case, users then report SQ improvements, maybe this is because the supposedly negative impact of the CI board actually produces euphonic results. Again, highly unlikely I think, it's just the last possible thing that I can think of!
Much waffle from me, but this really makes me wish that we had a little more technical information from Devialet with respect to exactly what the CI board does. How it otherwise integrates with the rest of the amp, implications for the new USB input, implications for the other inputs, implications of recent firmware / software implementation, I could go on. To be honest, we have never needed one of Devialet's nice white papers more than we do now.
1000 Pro - KEF Blade - iFi Zen Stream - Mutec REF10 - MC3+USB - Pro-Ject Signature 12
