upgrade is back

[tom539]

I think your question got a little missed in all the excitement and bickering of the recent posts, so I will try to answer.  

If your primary method of using the amp is via vinyl, then obviously the CI board itself will be of very little interest or use to you.  That said, the CI equipped Pro is a better sounding amplifier, irrespective of which input is used.  So it is safe to assume that you will get some kind of sound quality improvement when playing vinyl.  How much of an improvement will depend a little on the rest of your system, how good your TT is, what speakers you are using etc.  I guess the big question is will the level of sound quality increase obtained be worth 6000 Euros to you, and I think no one can answer that other than yourself.  It is a lot of money that could arguably be used better elsewhere.  One other point to note, the phono stage is identical between the Pro and the Expert, so this is a bit of a disappointment for vinyl users.  Not that there is much wrong with the current phono stage, but certainly this eliminates one possible reason to upgrade.  I would point out that I am more of an occasional vinyl user these days, most of my listening is digital, so someone who is primarily a vinyl user and has gone Expert to Pro might be able to offer a little more insight.

Hello Confused,

thank you for the detailed answer.

I also think that the Pro version will raise the overall sound level - even if the phono part has remained unchanged. I have been using AIR since version 3.x (currently Roon-AIR) and have never had any problems and it runs very stable.

But I also think that the general increase in sound is not worth 6000€ to me personally.
For the money I can buy lots of (vinyl)-albums and several years of tidal or Qobuz subscriptions - so I will probably stay with the 400.

My setup is written in the signature (and pictures here), the only space for improvement is room-tuning - sometimes difficulty in a living-room...

ATB, tom