Are DAC's overpriced?

@rbstehno  
 

Also, if you like a cold/analytical sounding dac, get a benchmark. 

 
A device can not be cold (emphasizes kids and treble; opposite of warm) and analytical (transparent, no color) at the same time. The Benchmark is indeed the latter.  

Analytical is associated with cool sounding, with the benchmark I’ll go with shrill sounding. The Benchmark is way too analytical IMO. At past audio shows, in every room with the benchmark dac, I spent an average of 2 minutes listening, sometimes walked in and turned around. It wasn’t only me, my friends with me that have good sounding dacs left too. 

"At past audio shows, in every room with the benchmark dac, I spent an average of 2 minutes listening,"

Completely baseless conclusion. You can not isolate what you didn't like to just the DAC. You'd need to switch the DACs while keeping everything else the same, including the volume, in order to draw any meaningful conclusions. That said, Benchmark DACs can sound too revealing - garbage in garbage out. 

@rbstehno

Shrill sounding again is about emphasized treble. Analytical doesn’t mean cool, cool means cool. Analytical is the same as transparent, you can’t analyze something if the tool adds color. If you don’t wanna hear what your music/speakers/room sound like like, then maybe a transparent DAC isn’t for you, get a tube one or something that has a lot of distortion, like some Audio-GD products. If you do want to hear no added colorations, then the Benchmark, and any other transparent DAC, is an excellent choice.

Should I buy a new cd player or get a new DAC for my old player?  

There’s an Oppo 205 for sale on another auction site for $2500, that’s the best of both choices . Great DAC chips (ES9038PRO), solid disc spinner and it streams. At $2500 you’re almost guaranteed your money back if you decide to sell it and take a different direction.