What is your cost for each system category ?

Don't base your components solely on cost. Pick the gear based on how it sounds to you and not by the price tag.

The pricing guidelines should be just that & use them as an aide, as not to go over you total system budget.

The main emphasis is %, not cost, for each category to determine the priority of each.

Here's an example of why such questions are next to meaningless. I'm in the process of replacing an integrated amp with separates. (I'm getting a new cabinet, with somewhat limited ventilation, and I don't want to put an amp inside.)

Now, this will approximately double the cost of the amplification portion of my system, and substantially increase its percentage share of the total cost. Is the new ratio better than the old? Worse? After all, the percentage devoted to speakers, which I would argue are the most important component, will go down. Have I done something wrong? Is my system now "out of balance" until I upgrade to a more expensive pair of speakers?

Of course not.

I like to start with the cables, and I think that they should be at least 50% of the total system budget. Every erudite audiophile knows that cables are components, and the electronics and transducers are nothing without them.

I leave everything up to my ears and what I can, comfortably afford. Out of balance $$ wise? Don't relate. Out of balance sonically? Intimate experiences with that. I never really looked at my system in the way of ($) percentages. For my taste, my system is sonically, and thoughtfully balanced. peace, warren