The system included Radio Shack house brand Realistic components:
- STA-2100 AM/FM Stereo Receiver
- Two Mach One Floor Speakers
- LAB-400 Turntable with base, dust cover, magnetic cartridge needle
- SCT-30 front-loading cassette deck with Double Dolby
- PRO-II stereo headphones
• ⁃ Stereo microphone
Back in 1979, Radio Shack had a pretty good stereo system that went for $1,329—which, if we were to adjust for inflation, would be about $5,700 in 2026. This system had a cassette tape player, which was still pretty new since that medium really started to take off in the mid-1980s. It was late 1970s tech, but to put it in perspective, for $5,700, it was just a music player.
I enjoy looking at how things have changed over the years, and it can be a fun way to see how far we’ve come. That stereo system, which would cost over $5,700 in 2026, is more than I’d pay for a 65-inch TV with a soundbar and subwoofer, which would totally outshine the 1979 system. Another comparison is that I can get an iPhone 17e for $900 CAD and a 200-watt Bluetooth party speaker from Amazon for $150 CAD, all for just over $1,000 CAD. On a side note, with that new iPhone, I’d get three months of free access to Apple Music, which means I could listen to pretty much every song ever recorded. So, yeah, life in the 1970s was pretty pricey.
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