Transparrent Ref XL vs Opus

I went from and all Reference system to changing my XLR interconnect to Reference XL. Leaving the speaker cable at the Reference level. There was a positive change for the better. It's been long while ago, but i think the bass was much better. Did i get the full benefit of the Reference XL, chances no.

I'm sure you will get better sound with just the change to Opus speaker cables. Will it be worth the cost? Only you can make that call. Speaker cables changed to Opus today interconnects change to Opus down the road, Would be what i would do.

I have a similar system as yours (just a step lower) and did the change from Ref xl to Opus throughout the system. The speaker cable change from Ref 160 to original Alexx speakers was substantial and the most costly. The biggest bang for the buck change for me was the xlr interconnect between my Rossini and Ref 10 line stage. The improvement here was substantial. The next biggest bang for buck was xlr interconnect between line stage and amp. For whatever reason, I wasn't wowed by the xlr interconnect change from the ref 3 phono stage to the ref 10 line stage. I am sure your dealer can arrange a demo of the cables for you, just be warned that the home demo of the Opus cables was a slippery slope and will make it hard to go back to the XL cables. 

I’d ask the question of the Audio Afficianado forum. Your system is of the caliber of most folks there. There is likely to be a number of folks that have both and made the transition.

Mixing and matching Transparent cables is fine, but the order of your upgrades depends on which Generation you currently own. We just upgraded from Ref XL Gen 5 to Gen 6 and the improvement was startling. If you have G5 interconnects I'd upgrade them first, before moving on to speaker cables.

@arcguy I have been wondering if the Gen5 to Gen6 upgrade was as large as previous upgrades.  Previously the mantra has been that the upgrade is about the same as 1.5 levels.

What improvements did you notice sonically and can you give more description to "improvement was startling"?

Thanks!

-docknow