Cables, just as important as a hi end component?

I use cables to get the final tuning on my system, I don't think there is a hard budget number for cable expenditures. I use the cable my system needs and that is often an affordable cable. 

You get what you pay for, but price is not a perfect indicator of overall quality.  You don't have to spend big on cables in order to get high quality performance.  If you want state of the art, that's a whole other situation.  Cables make a difference, but it's more along the lines of holding back a system rather than elevating one.

Been saying for years wire is every bit as important as any other component. The essential components of a high end system are source, amp, speaker, and wire. Four equally essential components. My rule of thumb, 25% on each. 

The thing is, the correlation between cost and sound quality is entirely hypothetical. There can come a point where for example with a Townshend F1 you can spend 5X and not have much to show for it, ditto Tekton Moab. That kind of thing. But in general yes it is penny wise and pound foolish to have a $30k system with $300 wire. Nuts. But a lot of guys still have yet to figure this out.