Latest news and a decent conclusion
I tried about 10 times to post to the Sony "professional page" about my experience. It kept saying that I was using special characters in my message, so I eliminated $, etc, in attempts to get it to work. Then it said that I was typing the captcha in wrong....so, I kept e mailing whatever I had for Sony addresses, and got replies back like "we are not allowed to forward e mails to the professional group", and of course, more and more automated replies saying they would respond within 6 hours, giving my message an incident number, etc......so, basically continued frustration.
I got an e mail back today finally, the ONLY reply I have ever gotten from the service center (Teaneck NJ) that although not acknowledging that the life span of the unit was not adequate (18 months/70 hours total) or expressing any agreement with any of my contentions about the build quality or answering my question as to whether there was any warranty to the unit as it was repaired DID HOWEVER rebate me 100 dollars US (using that rather than a "special character"
so, I got the repair for just over the standard diagnostic fee of $135.
Alls well that ends well, and sometimes it pays to be determined.......
also on the plus side, the unit did fine the other night for 3 sets. a big 1.5 hours on the repair so far.