Spending on dac vs amp

Other than technological advancements, DACs seem to be a flavor of the month type thing. I've read many reviews, including one of the Eastern Electric Minimax in which the reviewer says it's the best thing under $1500 and better than the Wyred4Sound DAC. Bam, next thing you know in the W4S's recent review from the same reviewer (Daryl) the Minimax gets blasted when compared to the W4S which is now mighty superior.

:) tough to trust reviewers, eg. I must say when I hear people comment on how audio furniture creates a more transparent, 3d sound, I'm getting very skeptical too.

Cmalak, thank you for the feedback. I shopped quite a bit fir my speakers and ended up buying the spendors s8e used on this site. I also bought an LCD integrated used. Now trying to complement my system with dac, cables, other...

DACs depreciate and personally would buy something I would be happy with long term and something that is just for now to get by as opposed to buying two things that are not really want I want but are in proper proportion pricewise. To that end, I recently spent some serious coin on speakers and amps, but am using the DAC in a marantz integrated receiver which I thought would be good enough for now but is really IMHO good enough for long term. I just can't bring myself to spend $1500 and up on something that will be worth 10-20 of new in five years. I rather buy a slightly used amp which will be worth about what I paid for it in five years or used speakers which I can get back 80% in five years.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that the price of HI End gear doesn't always correlate with better sound. In other words you don't always get what you pay for in this hobby. There are plenty of superb sounding "Giant Killers" around. I must emphasize that finding something cheaply that you think sounds great is a real possibility so those that say you can't expect to spend "only" $250 on a DAC and get good sound may be very wrong.
I know, I spent $350 on a preamp and think it's a great preamp. (A used AES AE-3 plus some for good tubes)

Well, here'e another response. I spent most of my money on speakers ($3600), then on TWO ARC amps ($4500 due to ebay) and lastly, the DAC and Digital X-over. My source is a PC, or a receiver, or one of two CD-Players. The system is Bi-amped, so the use of an integrated amp is not an option. Total price I can't recall, because my best CD-player is a Phillips, which I purchased long ago. Don't be afraid of the DACS making your sound too harsh or two-dimensional, the tube amps can smooth things out considerably. Just a thought.