What is a good stereo receiver for under $150?

There are plenty of good stereos out there for less than $150 made by Teac; Sherwood; Sony even Denon sometimes on e-bay....I would chose the Sherwood receivers over the Sony though but I would think that the way to go if you don't have a turntable yet is to get the Onkyo TX 8255 for $180 and the Audio Technica AT-PL60 turntable for $75 total...$255 both from Amazon....

yamaha and pioneer make receivers that start from 205 to 220 or so. just a tad out of your range. I think you can find a turntable for another 150, so that keeps you in the 350 range. don't forget speakers and wire though.

with what you're doing, you only need 2 speakers, spend at least 100 for a low end set of bookshelf speakers.

AND, you'll have this crap for a long time, so spending more will give you more over time.

Your probably not going to find anything new (that sounds good) for $150 bucks, if you check out ebay, there are some good deals on vintage stereo receivers, most come with a built-in phono stage - Look at NAD, Adcom, Kenwood, Pioneer, Marantz from the late 80's early 90's, I bought a NAD 7240 four years ago on ebay for $110 and it is still going strong.

If you are serious about good sounding music, don't compromise on your gear, go without and save for some quality equipment before you by sub-standard crap - I made this mistake and went through a bunch of crap gear instead of being patient.

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Check the link for a pretty good name brand receiver with phono input for $180

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_580TX8255/Onkyo-TX-82...

Wal Mart carries a pioneer DEH-1900MP. My girlfriend just got one. It has some good features and it's only 95 bucks.