Hey, most of us started out with pretty cheap stuff. My first system was a store demo HK 330B that didn't sound right until it went back to HK, a set of Realistic MC-1000 speakers, a Garrard turntable with a cheap Empire cartridge, and the only thing I kept, a Panasonic/Technics RS-276US cassette deck that I bought at Burstein-Applebee, where I had a charge card with a $500 limit. I was 14! After it was obvious the 330B sounded awful, it went off to HK service and I bought a Panasonic SA-6500 receiver from Dixie Hi-Fi, and I sold the 330B to a friend across the street when it came back. I ended up selling about a dozen more 6500's as it was a nice receiver and nobody could or would match my out the door price of $400-425. They closed them out at $212 with free shipping, so I made 100% on them. Dixie would send out a closeout/special list every month and there were some amazing deals on it. The Sa-6500 was one of the all time best, IMHO.
I have a SA-6500 sitting on my shelf right next to my center channel speaker. The wood case is a mess, but the receiver itself is in great shape. The only weakness of the 6500 is the sliders. Even though I sold all kinds of other receivers, some of them cost a lot more than the SA-6500 did, it stayed around until the late 90's, gradually moving from main unit, to a tuner(it was better than the Yamaha R-9 that replaced it as my main unit) and rear channel amp to rear channel amp only. It's still working on a friend's rear channels. The shipping on the one I have now was 2X what the receiver cost was. The RS-276 I have now was $20+$20 shipping and is in mint condition.The Garrard TT lasted 3-4 years, when it got replaced by a Dual 1229 with a Shure V15TypeIII or IV, can't remember. The Dual died in 1982 when the movers wrecked it, and it was replaced by my last TT, a Yamaha PX-3. Between 82 and 2006, I had a lot of stuff go through here, most of it Yamaha and Carver. At one point I had 2 Carver M400t's both monoed out, running my front channels. I still have an Onkyo cassette deck I got at a garage sale for $20, in the box, with the receipt. It was only 2 years old. Still works fine.
There are always super cheap older HT receivers on Ebay for bargain prices.