What is your favorite budget audio component?

Just now read through this entire post for first time . Excellent post with so many great things made my head  swim , don't think anyone was wrong !

That said , if this was a contest and in the unlikely event an old fool like me was the judge, roberjerman would win 1st prize  with his Pioneer PLX1000
with Denon 103R.

Mine is mounted with a Soundsmith Otello and one of  THE best buys i've made in 50 years in audio. The bearings come with a bit of slack as their powerful torque sells to the DJ crowd as well . It cost me all of  $30 bucks to rectify that by a local tech . You can do yourself if you are at all handy, which I am not .

SoundPath RCA Audio Interconnect Cable @ $50/ pair by SVSound.

No burn in required, just great neutral sound from the beginning.

Made up two mains cables for myself with SR blue fuses in each at half the cost of my JPS Kaptovator and can't tell the difference between them.

Polk sda 3.1TL

I've enjoyed a PS Audio DirectStream DAC since it first hit the market (nearly four years ago), and though a $6000 piece of gear might not be thought of as "budget", I have applied each and every firmware update since owning the unit, and it's like trading the unit in for a "new and improved" DAC, so from that perspective I'll call it "budget".
The latest "Redcloud" firmware update is just awesome!