Should I use a separate transport?

You'd have to be crazy to spend $1400 to repair that player. that's ridiculous.

Buy a new one and sell the old one for parts if you can.

I just bought a used Denon DVD-2900 cheap to use as a transport from Craig's List and I'm leaving it at that.

Get something like the NuForce Icon HDP for the DAC and you'll be one happy camper for a lot less than the price of the repair. The NuForce also has a USB computer input and a great headphone amp built in.

Other good transports to consider would be a Teac or CEC belt-drive. But I like using either a good Denon or Pioneer DVD player for a transport as they work very well and can be bought cheap. The optical assemblies on the transports are delicate and are the first things that usually go bad (in my experience).

I'm using a denon dvd 2900 also (paid $100 off craigslist) as a transport connected to a musical fidelity v-dacII with a pangea p-100 power supply. All together it was $600 and sounds pretty decent!

My first thought would be to cry out music server. Those dollars may best be spent going in a new direction.

As you seem to really like the unit, if a compatible transport can be had and the total cost to put it back on line is $500.00, just for old times sake I would do that. Over that amount, perhaps time to try something new should you want to stick to a cd only player. Even then I would buy a universal player such as the Oppo 105, which would be much less than the cost of total repair for the Accuphase and of course be much more versatile should the desire arise.