My #@%$ Cat Destroyed My ARC REF 5SE. Soliciting Suggestions.


(Public service announcement-keep your pets away from your audio equipment)

I love my cat. But not as much as I once did :-)
The short story is cat pee corroded the main board to my ARC REF 5SE. 

Homeowners insurance doesn't cover repair or replacement because owning a pet means you assume liability/responsibility. Ironically, or strangely enough, If my neighbor's cat or dog did this, I could collect.

My options-
Repair it. Fixing it will cost 7K. The main board alone is 6K.
Buy a pre-owned replacement at close to similar price. And if I go pre-owned, what's the market on a REF 5SE with a destroyed main board.
Go in a different direction.

What would you do?

TIA,
David
128x128wharfy
@wharfy,  Oh my, that must have been excruciating when you found out.  One thing I learn here is patience . . what to do when something terrible happens, instead of going with your initial reaction (me).

Im a novice, so pardon my ignorance in this regard, but is there anyone out there that could build and install a replacement board for a fraction of buying a new board from the manufacturer?  If you could significantly cut the cost of replacement, while maintaining performance, that seems like a great option.  I don’t know how many people have access to those parts and the expertise to do the work.  Some members here seem pretty skilled.  

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Rather than paying 7K for a repair, you are probably better off value-wise picking up a used REF6 for <=9K if you can (one was listed for $7,750 in June). Then upgrade it at a later date if you want (and if the upgrade is worth it, haven’t seen any reviews yet), for another $3K.