Transparent Cables - Worth the money?

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.

today i posted a description of the materials and construction of the opus on the "audio asylum" cable board if you are interested. it is under a thread started early yesterday. i would think construction costs and labor are a few factors higher than your estimate. but i think this is about performance and market value, not cost. i paid about $8k more than the next best speaker cable would cost. for my money it was worth it.

Mike, good info. I just upgraded a set of "super" i.c.'s to Ultra yesterday (unfortunately not with Xl) but still sound damn good and I hope to be upgrade to REF. some day. I don't know if I will ever make the jack to justify REF XL or the Opus but if I could, I would.

I recently heard the spm compared against the transparent reference. I felt the transparent was a touch better. Ultra-hirez system with wilson speakers & BAT electronics. I also found the audio salon dealer's comments quite useful. It's great to hear from people who have the opportunity to compare many different cables. Has anyone compared the harmonic tech pro-silway II's to nordost spm or transparent reference ?

i did compare thr transparent ref. xl to the harmonic tech. magic woofer/tweeter. i liked the harmonic tech. better. more neutral with more extended high-frequencies. the ref. xl sounded slightly dark and closed in in comparison. to be fair to the transparent it is a 5 year old design. the ref. xl still out-performs most other cables on the market. what other 5 year old design can say that?