Do you consider cables to be a "component" of your system?

"I just wondered if you had to recommend a set up to someone (who wanted a nice stereo), would you consider cabling to be essential in your build price and your recommendations? If so, would you consider the cost of the cables to be on par with the cost of a component?"

I think cables can be very, very important.

Many would agree with that.

However I would suggest putting the investment into the speakers and electronics and using decent budget cables.
That will likely be more impactful than using handfuls of $500-1000 ICs on lesser grade speakers and electronics.

I suppose it we are talking high 5 or 6 figure budgets then the cables are in the budgetary noise.

I'd tell them to get the best gear they can to start, use the stock cables and then slowly upgrade the cables when they're able to. So, they should absolutely assume new cables are in their future, and therefore, start saving. Because they can truly, significantly enhance the experience when they upgrade--and it's a fun way to learn the hobby.

100%

Yes but not to the extreme  of others here. I look for the cables to impeach the components connect to them. Stay out of the way…no colorations.

@thyname

Yes I’ve vintage but very well set up with exceptional rebuilding and upgrading as necessary. Equipment age aside it’s my opinion you could do a little research and relax. What you have is nice and certainly newer, but if sound is the goal you’re in the rearview mirror. And let’s not get personal Your opinion is just that and nothing more, that we have in common. Bashing BS is certainly getting boring, listening to a select few is right up there. Without animosity…Cheers

Absolutely YES YES YES

Yes, cables are definitely a vey important element of MY system. They can make or break a system in my opinion, and so can anti-vibration platforms, power conditioners, and so on. You really don't need to have golden ears to hear what they do - in my system. I've enjoyed a tremendous (yes, TREMENDOUS) upgrade of resolution, openness, pace of said system after replacing the whole cable loom. It certainly brings as much an improvement as changing the amplifier(s) for more expensive ones, or the DAC. And it costs less. It seems to me a lot of audiophiles just go through an awful lot of component swaps without ever trying to get the best out of them, wasting time and money, when very often all that was needed is a little attention to surrounding devices and cables.

Now of course there are systems where the improvements might be more subdued, and where you mIGHT need more concentration to hear the differences, which may seem too subtle at first. 

Try it with a high sensitivity, fully horn loaded system like mine, and you'll be shocked. My explanation for that, is when you use 100dB+ sensitive speakers, at normal domestic listening SPLs, the signal travelling through your devices stays really really low, uncomfortably close to the plane where distortions and noise induced by external perturbations (spurious vibrations, EMI, RF, mains noise...) reside. That doesn't make it a "better" system, it's just a characteristic of very high efficiency, and is more often than not a plague rather than a blessing. Yes, in my system, you clearly hear everything, from the type of cable used to the platform where the DAC and the transport reside. It's absolutely not "subtle", rather dramatic in fact. 

That being said, even in a conventional system cables are important and yes, I believe ears can be trained for critical listening, there is absolutely no doubt about that.