I had a Jet 17MF once (floor model 17" swing) and I thought it was
well worth $275 which is what I paid. It had less than .001" runout in
the spindle, and the vibration and overall fit and finish were acceptable.
In short, it worked fine. I think if you look carefully at what you're
getting, the larger import floor model DPs can be fine. You might want to
look at something I wrote once:

http://www.tinyisland.com/htbdrillp.txt

GWE