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

@guscreek 

I don't believe most audiophiles want a warts and all true reproduction, especially the valve contingent. Live music can be very noisy and brash, a far cry from the warmth of valves. Transistors are more accurate and truthfull and take far longer to suffer wear and degradation.

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.

Orchard audio dac for 1500 is amazing 

Lost in translation.  Are we angry about the 50K price, mad at the dybbuks who can afford one or convinced there cannot be differences?  Yes, diminishing returns.

I own four different DACs at distinct price points and yes each improves performance measurably with the price point increase.  $300/2K/6K/12K

News alert, we live in the age of excess.  Logic’s ticket got punched and took a transfer line.  Be still.  Nobody said you had to play or pay for that matter.

Regularly, I attended CES when it was very A/V oriented and some heavy hitters showed.  I heard expensive awful systems at times.  Don’t buy them.  Period.

Sometimes it is very much a Rod Serling moment.  Cheers