J2 base DAC is $250. If you want the new AKM chipset, ( a lot more expensive) it bumps to the J2s. Adds XLRs and a USB, then you have the option to go with the Sparkos op amps. Some think highly of them. If you want a wood case, more money. You can actually spend close to $900 for one. The older J2 AKM chipset was suggested to be close to Bifrost level sonically. Mrs. Geselli advised me to wait for this new version when I described the sonic flaw I was chasing. Not a giant killer, but apparently a fair price and you don't have to pay for features you may not want. Some do want BT. Add some value as they actually provide support. How does it compare with the better mid-range DACs, that is what is important. E70 Velvet? D0300? X18? Draco? Bifrost?
If my JDS was packaged like an SMSL DM2, power supply certified instead of a generic AC wall wort, toss in a bunch of software you don't need, pay the MQA license, BT, remote, balanced drivers, make it in the hundreds instead of tens of thousands, it would probably be ten times the price and sound the same. I wonder what the reviewers or price-snobs would think of it then?
That leaves us with what is actually a performance step up? If you put out a couple grand, you expect the nice packaging, so price/sonic value goes down. More inputs you don't use? Remote control of parameters you never change? You reach the level of diminishing returns. Tiny improvements costing big bucks.
So what does one really get for $3000? Or $20,000? Better at what? I would like to think something but the ones I have hear demoed have not shown me anything positive. Wrong ones? Wrong speakers? How much of that is distributor and dealer profit? A lot of the attributes the subjective puppets ascribe are not actually functions of the DAC. That does not even touch on what biases and expectations your brain makes up to justify spending that kind of money. It does if you believe it or not. If that lie makes it sound better to you, then you have achieved your goal and the price was worth it.
What a change that Jeffery O'l boy agreed with me that good DACs don't need the DDC band-aid. For $20K, I hope it is a good one as a Modi+ for $139 doesn't need one either. I sure hope his doesn't use the computer USB 5V in a 20K client. My $99 one is smarter than that.