Are DAC's overpriced?

chayro... "Just a little point here - I had a 2900 and it was a well-built unit with a smooth, non-offensive sound. I hope you find a nice dac you are happy with, but don't automatically assume you will prefer it to what you have. That's why you really have to try and see for yourself. Personally, I prefer 1-box units for their simplicity and not having to deal with digital cables, reclockers, whatever. But I'm a simple guy. :)"

I received a "Box O Goodies" today from my mentor In the industry and I will say this... I don't need a DAC with the 2900... not with my simple two channel system! I changed the speaker wires and that made a very nice, much more open sounding rig. I'm not going Tidal or buying a new computer to listen to something I don't own! 

http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy302/thegainster/49667060_235612500648601_5983303984981475328_n....

Possibly yes if it's built around a Sabre chip. Possibly no if it's R2R or FPGA.

What are “the” chips to look for?

I think the question about audio products being over-prices are pretty meaningless unless you explain your thinking in more detail. If you don't think you can hear any difference at all between a $100 dac and a $10 000 dac you can just buy the cheap one and be happy. Many people listen to cheap bluetooth speakers and are happy.

If you mean that a specific piece of gear is overrpices you could elaborate a bit more why you think so. I think that TotalDACs and dCS dacs are expensive but I did like them when I heard them at an audio show. At the same time I don't have the financial means to buy any of them so I don't really care. I hope that some of the technologies inside ripple down to cheaper dacs sooner or later.

If I had a stereo bought for about $10 000 I would probably be looking for dacs around $2000 up to $3000. If I had a stereo bought for +$100 000 and had the money to buy new things to it (I wish) I would also look at the expensive dacs but try to listen and compare them to some $3000 dacs.

If you just want something and don't think dacs matter you could by a Chord Mojo or a iFi Micro Black Label and use that for a few months. Then you can try to find something better and try to compare it with your current dac. Those are easy to carry around if you want to bring them to a store and compare there (some stores will let you do that).

@captbeaver 
 
ESS Saber chips (9018 and newer 9038 are very popular) 
 
AKM chips (4458 is probably the most popular chip out there, they have higher end ones like the 4490 and such). 
 
There’s a few other brands, but nowadays these two make up the majority, and for good reason.