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

Townshend Rock II turntable

Second hand Thorens TD150 - add some chassis damping, a solid base board, new springs Armageddon PSU and a decent arm and you aren‘t far off a an early Linn

Robertson 4010A power amp - a Krell on the cheap if you get a good one

Marantz CD5000 - outperforms many high priced CD players, especially if you perform surgery and take the output straight from the DAC

Easily the Sound Artist 200sa integrated amplifier I bought on Amazon for $399. Bought it just to use as a disposable test amp. Totally blew me and my friends away. Compared to my Pass First Watt F5 v2 it holds its own. Great remite, super heavy with huge toroidal transformer. A unicorn........second place would be a Topping MX3 integrated amp....

A friend of mine in FL buys 'bargains' quite often. Some of his methods bother me though, i.e. to go to a hospice where they do have sales from the people who once lived there. I would gladly give more than the product is worth, but not to 'steal a deal'. Just something morbid about that. Or waiting until the end of the day so that the garage sale attendant will more likely settle on a lower price. The irony of it all is that he lives in an RV and has to rent a storage unit to keep his bargains.

 Yes, this is a bit off topic, yet do we tend to bend this way at times?

QHW The Vinyl phono stage just a great sounding phono pre

Nobsound Mini Amp- $45 new and can really play my rear surround speakers loud and clear: