Are DAC's overpriced?

If you old CD spinner still plays well, get a DAC. The prices for DACs are from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand. Good used DAC can be had for a few hundred.

Basically many ’nice’ cheap DACs sound OK. And they basically all sound very similar. there are bad cheap DACs.. Then the pricey DACs. not a lot better, except some do sound better enough...
Then you got the fanboys, for whom specific DACs are "Giant Killers" as if...
And some CD players and transports do sound better than others. Folks call it ’jitter’ but that is just guessing. But maybe good enough.         
Anyway yeah some transports sound better. and again some cheap (I use $40 used off ebay myself, to go to my $7000 DAC)  LOL

Oppo 205 list $1200, current madness $2500 to $4000.Ridiculous and NOT worth $2500. Anyone want to gamble on Tulip bulbs?

It is true, jitter is the current 'catch phrase', covering everything from cellulitis to barnacles.      
Two old bags in the hair salon.. "My doctor told me I have toe jitter..." 
Car salesman: "And this used beauty... No jitter, not even a trace!"   
Judge Judy show:... Plaintiff: And we discovered after we moved in the house HE rented to us.. it was FULL of jitter". :How could we stay in such a place?" Defendant: 'They brought the jitter with them.."

Sadly so many recordings manage to use only the top few dB of the range. It is called compression...                 
The bane of recorded music.

The smallest information... The slight glistening of the edges of the piano notes.. The flute reverberations around the players, the difference between a common violin and a masterpiece. All those sounds are in the sounds close to the noise floor. The breath of the singer, The aura around some singers voices, When Frank Sinatra turns his head to or away from the microphone.                
ll those little details are in the last little bits... If you think you have no use for them? Maybe you never noticed? Maybe you never noticed because you never bothered to own anything capable of reproducing them? Not my problem... Just saying they are there...  

I have to disagree with billwojo and say that DSD CD decoding as done by the Marantz Sa-10  is better. To say they 'don't compete 'is true. The DSD decoders are better. no competition.

For the op... Reading and doing are two different things. Reading that DAC tech has moved faster than amplifier... Then deciding from READING it that therefore amps are the limiting factor?
HAH hah hahahahahahahahahaha.. etc.