On your own you may get $2.5k+
Before I sold it I used an Denafrips Ares 2 DAC. It became
oh so apparent that the Oppo DAC was way inferior.
No golden ear required.
My move was to sell the Oppo, buy an Innuos Zen 3 Streamer/burner/storage new. Then I bought an Audio Mirror DAC for $1.5k
All in at $3.7-$2.0 Oppo money = $1.7 net in upgrade costs but now have everything I need. I did stumble across an Oppo BDP 93 at Goodwill for $18 so I can still play the occasional movie too.