Herb Reichert from Stereophile who does not review the priciest equipment raved about the new Rotel dac and cd transport for under $2500. He said that his pricier dacs were not better necessarily. He did not mention which pricier dacs but I do believe it may well be the Holo May Dac (because he owns it and he compared Rotel to a pricier ladder dac).
This is just to say I dont think a 5K dac is necessarily better than a 2.5K dac.
I use a benchmark dac3 and depending on the associated equipment it can sound great or mediocre. If you feed the benchmark the right combination of tube amplification and the right speakers and cabling and it sounds deep accurate compelling and very enjoyable. On the other hand I have heard the same benchmark dac with same benchmark preamp LA4 sound clinical or too bright if not the right synergy.
bottom line imho its more about the synergy of quality components than the idea that one quality component is ideal for any situation.
I also have two marantz 30N universal players and in one system it sounds fantastic right now and in the other system it currently is uninvolving.....so its not the equipment imho....its the relationship between all the equipment and your room and the power distribution in that room too