I may be in the minority here, but I do think it’s overkill to spend 50K on a DAC. Even if you could afford it, how much better will it help you get into the music, which I believe is the central point of our hobby? You certainly can do that for a hell of a lot less money. If you want to hear the breathing of the cellist, or the stomp of the conductor on the podium and such, that’s fine. Spend it.
Audio has reached a point today where 99.5 of what’s on a recording can be produced just fine with relatively modest cost.
I don’t begrudge the spending of big money for audio equipment for getting that .5 percent. I just don’t see the point of it.