I think you have to pick something which can work. Cheap for cheap's sake is not what I had in mind...

There is also the matter of what constitutes good enough. That there are folks out there who can be happy with something out of the commercial, 60's OEM gear makes me sort of curious. It clearly point to a wide spread of personal taste. this is a good thing. ifit weren't so, it would be easy to pick your performance bracket with a check-book. how good do you want it to sound? concults list...that will be n*10^a, with n and a being determined by the linear cost matrix....
cheers,
Douglas