Is it possible to find a good DAC for under $50, 000?

Utter nonsense.  I challenge ANYONE here to see if they can hear the difference between a $50,000 DAC and a $5000 one.  Hell, even a $1500 DAC.  You don't need to spend as much on a DAC as you would on a car.

I recently read an editorial that obliquely tackles this subject.  The main point was who actually had a true reference as to what is a perfect reproduction.  Many recordings are not venue specific.  Those that are were made in the past in a place no one can revisit.  So unless one is a musician what sets the standard?  

Same here. I don't now what a 50K DAC would do vs. a 5K but that's my ignorance.

Also, I am not on any blog or forum that has members with 300K Ferraris. Maybe there are a few here.

When watching a dramatic movie, a ’lack of continuity’ in a scene can disrupt the viewer’s ’suspension of disbelief’.   It could be anything - such as an actor’s incorrect eyeline or mismatched action in the edit.   Whatever the cause for the lack of continuity, the viewer’s attention is distracted and removed from the story-telling experience. The scene loses believability for the viewer.   A filmmaker wants to capture the audience’s attention and keep them engaged throughout the story.

The reviewer in this video is describing a similar concept when listening to music.  If a listener is knowledgeable about the authentic sound of musical instruments and their nuances, distortion in the playback disrupts their listening experience.  Their attention is distracted.  The listener is no longer engaged.  The reviewer proceeds to explain how distortion occurs in the digital realm. And how that particular DAC mitigates it - in order to allow the music to be as believable as possible.   He also describes the criteria that he uses for reviewing audio reproduction in various components. For a serious music lover, his review makes perfect sense.

In the video, his delivery is very dry and clinical - but the content is quite informative.  He talks about the major challenge of reproducing the authentic sounds of cymbals and the high notes of a piano.   Probably very few systems on AudiogoN do those well.   Probably very few posters on this thread have heard a system that does those well.*

Mocking the price of a component on a discussion forum that promotes high fidelity audio is kind of bizarre.   Do people mock the price of a Ferrari on an exotic car discussion forum?

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* Though, there are a few posters on this thread that know the authentic sound of acoustic instruments quite well.