A hundred years ago, owning a phonograph was a reasonably priced proposition. This ad, from the September 10, 1914 edition of the New York World, advertises that you can purchase a $15 Victrola, along with $9 worth of records, for only a dollar down and 50 cents per week.

Today, you can listen to most of those records online, since the Library of Congress National Jukebox has them available for download or online listening. The audio quality today, as it was a century ago, is surprisingly good, and much better than most people expect.