Are DAC's overpriced?

I owned the Benchmark DAC3L + AHB2 amp for about a year. I took both to an audio store and compared them to Mark Levinson 585 (and also some ML separates) with the Magico A3. The ML gear sounded a heck of a lot better. I did not play the volume too loud so I was not straining the AHB2. I sold my Benchmark gear after that. After that demo, I realized that specs are not the end all.

@yyzsantabarbara

You sold your $5000 Benchmark gear because it sounded worse than a $12,000 integrated?

Mark Levinson is owned by Harman, who also believes in designing gear based science/specs/human trails. Revel is also owned by them.

Mark Levinson is owned by Samsung now, isn't it?

Samsung bought Harman, for $8,000,000,000.

@mzkmxcv I have learned that in audio more money is not always an indicator of the best performance. However, I sold the Benchmark because it did not sound as good on the new speakers I want to buy as compared with the ML If you go by spec alone the Benchmark should compare well. It did not have the ability to project the sound away from the speakers like the ML did. So in this case the more expensive gear was better to my ears.

I known a bit about Harman due to owning Revel Salon1 for a number of years.