Are DAC's overpriced?

itsjustme...

I am real... at least the IRS and my mortgage company think so. lol

The question was "are" they overpriced. 

I am a lifelong musician and almost all of my tube amps are custom built and I play PRS guitars with mostly boutique effects pedals so I understand what goes into making high end equipment.

I am looking to run a simple simple cd-preamp-amp-speakers-gin n tonic- comfy chair system. 

Now... lots of folks want me to run a DAC with my current cd player which played well but is an older model. Looking into this I have found the price of a standalone DAC to be ALL over the map. I understand this and how it works BUT DAC's seem to be very trendy at the moment ( no disrespect meant) and I can't see paying 3-20 thousand dollars for one, nor can I, and want to discuss "if" they are the trending component at the moment. I don't know much about DAC's as a component and came here to learn a few things... do I need one with such a simple setup? :)

@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.