What are/were the best sounding cheap components you have ever had?

NAD 7225PE 25W receiver I used from 1991 to 2015...beautiful sounding and the most reliable component I've ever owned. It remained powered on for years (no kidding) with not one hiccup.

My first was cheap... pioneer amp 25 watts with Kenwood speakers when Kenwood was made in Japan. They were my first set and I thought everything sounded as good and when I tried to change as they got older, boy was I wrong. This was so long ago that if you bought something older than this, you have to be dead.

schiit modi 3. since buying it i've had multiple $500-1000 dacs through here and none offered enough improvement to justify the additional spend for me. going to try the denafrips one all the reviewers rave about before writing off that whole price bracket as a waste of money for me...don't know when i'll get to it though, because i am playing the cartridge upgrade game at the moment (ultimately i care more about vinyl than digital playback, and funds are limited.) but yeah the modi is a killer little piece of equipment in my experience

ear 834P clone. the good one with the covered torroidal, black board with gold traces

$300 shipped. didnt mod it at all. just put in good tubes and WOW. 

1979-1981..NAD 3020 integrated amplifier.  Great on a student's budget.