Transparent Cables - Worth the money?

i traded in my reference xl speaker cable at full list price and got a good discount from there. in the context of my system it made more sonic improvements than other similar investments. for instance, it clearly makes more difference than cd to sacd.

Do they come with a free Amp on one end and speakers on the other?

no they don't; but they do make your amps and speakers perform at a level or 2 higher. so in one sense they do come with new amps and speakers. they also make every recording you own better; if it is recorded decently.

What do you think it costs to build an eight foot run of Opus?

For discussion purposes only, let us assume the following:

Cost of Material, probably at most $500

Labour(assume assembly, testing at most 20 man-hours
@ $25 per man -hour = $500

loading factor 1.5 (includes R&D, etc)

Thus estimated manufacturing cost = $1250 (at most)

Retail multiplier =6

Sugggested retail 6x1250 = $7500

From this example you can see that the cost of the labor and parts would have to be significantly higher to justify the price of this cable at $23k /8ft.