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

@nicolelynn_94115: Oh man, I forgot about the FMI 80! Talk about value!! I didn’t have the 80, but I had Robert Fulton’s Model J, which employed the 80 as it’s midrange reproducer. For highs it was the RTR ESL tweeter box (containing 6 ESL tweeters, the same ones David Wilson used in his original WAMM), for lows a transmissionline-loaded dynamic woofer. I don’t remember the price of the 80 (something like $200?) but in 1974 the Model J was priced at $1200/pr, itself good value

By the way, Robert Fulton was also an excellent recording engineer. His ARK label LP's feature fantastic recorded sound, with superb inner detail and natural timbres. His recordings are exclusively of local Minnesota choirs and church organists, good ones.

@chowkwan: are you sure about the $750 price for the ET LFT-8? It’s price at introduction 30 years ago (!) was to the best of my knowledge $1500/pr, increasing slightly when the -8A was introduced with improvements, and again when the -8b appeared. The -8b finally settled at a stable price of $2499’pr for years (what I paid for mine), and has now crept up to $2800. In the opinion of more than a few (Harry Wesifeld of VPI, Robert E. Greene of TAS---yes, there ARE persons of integrity at the mag, a number of UK reviewers, and myself. Reviews available on the ET website), the best speaker value on the market..

Then there is the new -8c, which incorporates a new dipole woofer, woofer amplification, and an active x/o with DSP (beating Magnepan to market with same), selling for $3900. The new woofer/amp/DSP is available separately for current -8b owners (a simple bolt-on replacement for the -8b's passive sealed woofer), at a price of $1500/pr.

While the ET-8 IS inefficient (mid-80’s), its modulus of impedance is quite different from that of Magnepans. The woofer and magnetic-planar panel present a fairly even load of 8 ohms to the amplifier, the m-p panel alone (when bi-amping) an almost purely-resistive 11 ohms, great for tube amps. Magnepans in contrast are a 3-4 ohm load, which is why they prefer solid state.

- Acoustic Research XA turntable, $78 retail (!) in 1969.

- Decca Blue pickup, $140 in 1972.

- SME 3009 Mk.2 Improved, $295 (iirc) in 1973.

- Townshend Audio Rock Elite turntable, $650 in the early-90’s.

- A couple of used Zeta arms, $600 and $800 iirc.

- Herron VTPH-1mm, direct from Keith for $1225.

Even better are the LP’s and CD’s I’ve acquired over the past 55 or so years (Music Millennium in Portland had it’s bi-annual sidewalk sale a week ago, thousands of VG+ to Mint condition LP’s for $2 apiece. My racks swelled by another 40 or so discs), the value of which is to me immeasurable. As Mazzy (Norman Mazlov) has been reminding us in his latest Vinyl Community YouTube Videos, "It’s about the music, stupid."