I'm thinking now that a really sensitive auto guider - very, very, very well focused - and a really tuned (to your rig) guiding program coupled to really rigidly mounted gear (to eliminate differential flex) is essential to getting much, much better results.
Personally I am growing to like the C9.25 (especially the carbon fibre one) more and more each day! I've said elewhere - I only have to re-focus mine about once or twice a year! And with a Bhatinov mask cut with a scapel from art paper (cost $2 and 30 minutes effort) I can achieve perfect focus in about 8 minutes!
I'm in heaven
PS
A 900 second shot with slightly better PS colour processing to combat the blue shift. I must stress there are no flats, darks or bias shots applied to this shot.
Look mainly at how the stars are - I'm still learning PS techniques and have a long way to go - but the stars tightness reveals a bit more about what this scope can do.
PPS
Back end of my imaging / viewing gear if anyone was interested.
PPPS
Note the small thin wire stuck into the back of the Meade DSI pro - trick I learnt. The USB cable has to be really snug - if it isn't with the amount of current needed to power Meade gear a loose cable making bad contact is enough short and immediately re-boot your PC! Took me six months of mysterious PC re-boots - once or twice a night to catch this error when imaging remotely!