Transport replacement costs - Proceed


I finally got to a point where I called Harman for a RMA number. My Proceed PDT3 (I think) may need to have its transport replaced. Last year I was unwilling to send it in because (at the time) Harman was charging a flat $1000 "entry fee" for servicing this older line of equipment. They now have a "not to exceed" fee (which covers both parts and labor). In the case of the PDT3 the NTE fee is $995. I am a little unwilling to be socked with an almost $1000 fee for such an old (but still awesome) transport. When I asked the guy what he thought a transport replacement would cost, he was unsure. Does anyone have any recent experience in helping me understand whether this kind of work would be bumping up on to the higher end of that NTE fee?
tonyptony
Thanks for the suggestion, Dne. I've been scratching my head on this one. I am seriously considering putting all my music (either uncompressed or with lossless compression) on to my PC and using something like a Squeezebox in place of my transport. I have the knowledge, equipment, disk space, and networking all in hand to be able to do something like this. I am just looking for some more comparisons between this new server alternative and traditional high end transports. Maybe it's the way to go.
As did Bluebull, I sold my 37 & 390S due to the quirky nature of the transports and the exorbitant repair costs.
I ripped my entire library to FLAC files on a PC feeding a Squeezebox2 and external DAC. I'm extremely pleased with the sound. The level of convenience of NOT having to insert discs and having access to the entire library at the push a button is fantastic.
Jman66, at last! Someone I can ask. I am familiar with the sound of your old gear. Are you using the SB2 as a digital or analog out? I would LOVE to hear your opinion as to how the SB2 stacks up in digital out compared to your old transport!

I started a thread in PC Audio about moving to the SB3.