Biggest "pleasant surprise" components you have owned?

When I have owned ARC, Magnepan, Conrad Johnson and most of the "big names" you can think of...all of that ownership came with expectations and mostly those expectations were met.  
From my journey the somewhat surprising components,...and thankfully there have been a few... were the Nakamichi SoundSpace 5 I bought for my youngest son,  a Mitsubishi tuner, an old NOS ADC-XLM cartridge, an early Winegard (sp?) outdoor FM antenna,  some "mainstream" units from Sony and Pioneer that were better than expected...  And isn't it nice when a product surprises you?,.....kind of an audiophile present. 
I would enjoy hearing of your surprise components. 
In our overpopulated, overpriced and problem filled world it is always good to hear of humans that have experienced pleasant surprises.     Thanks for your input.   Also, I apologize for, perhaps, doing a few too many posts...with this Covid lockdown, boredom has found me.  I am also extremely concerned of how many great small businesses will not survive this time in history, especially some of the best locally owned restaurants in most towns.
As always, I apologize for any typos and/or spelling errors.