DAC or new player ?

Along the lines of this thread, can someone explain to me why stand-alone DAC's are so much more expensive than some of the great-sounding integrated CD players? Given the high quality DAC's already built-in to many modern CD players, I can't get my head around the insane prices some separate DAC's sell for, especially when the chips are mass-produced in the same factories these days.
Are they that much better, or is it more related to low production volume or being hand-made that artificially pushes the prices up so high?

"I wanted to embrace the digital way"... me too! That's why I found your thread interesting. I wanted to buy a good CD player, but was told I might be better off buying a separate DAC for my Denon DVD player, until I saw how expensive they are.
Now I'm not sure what to do, as I just don't have the time nor experienced ear to spend hours doing listening comparisons.
Given that most DAC chips only cost a few dollars and only come out of a handful of IC manufacturers, and the associated components are even cheaper, I'd love to know how they end up retailing for so much more than some of the really nice integrated CD players, especially the sub $1000 category (Marantz, Cambridge, Rotel etc.)