Elvis Presley dual mixtapes

I have done a mixtape for two friends of an excellent Elvis' album that another friend lent me. It's a hit album by the highly renowed Analogue productions, which is considered one of the best audiophile firms.

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To make it I first carefully prepared everything to make a master copy to then make two duplicates, primarily to avoid playing the discs two times: cleaned the disc and the needle, checked all the set-up (weight and alignment of the cartridge, adjusted bias and rec level...)

I wanted to use my super-tuned Technics B965 (by Ant Audio) with dbx, so I'd have an almost silent master copy with the noise from the vinyl, not the very tape. But sadly the B965 hasn't kept well after being stored for 3 yrs and the right channel made huge distortions.
So I picked up my trusty SONY K909ES and had to use Dolby S instead of dbx.

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This release contains three 45 rpm discs of the highest quality available for vinyl. I picked up a '88 UX-S and made all the calibration stuff in the deck, to be sure that I achieve a perfect flat response and the sound is exactly the same as the original.

So after recording the 'master' tape, I've played this tape and asked my friends what kind of tape an recording do they want. One said, without dolby and the other with dolby B and-if possible- a Maxell. So I recorded the other two (a Maxell UD 90 and a '92 UX, one with Dolby B and the other without any noise reduction. Using a master tape with Dolby S allowed me to record two copies without adding the original master tape's noise to the final ones.

Then I scanned the album cover and then designed a cover using my own template, so I did a quick job in Photoshop and my old, trusty Freehand app and I printed it... twice:

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And finally cropped them to fit into the case:

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So they are ready for delivery

 

Very nice! I think I have that album, maybe the old version? Is it stereo or mono?

ARKAY would have DeOxited the crap out of the Technics. After the 70's, I never saw the nicer Technics Equipment, over here AIWA and Onkyo seemed to be the orphan tape deck companies. I do like their styling from then and have some matching equipment, just no modern tape decks.

 

What/who is Arkay? I have no idea...
'deoxited'? MAybe I'm a bit 'blurry' today but don't understand what you mean Maybe is my limited english...

Here AIWA and ONKYO were widely present well until late 90s. I've seen a LOT of AIWA equipment both in people's houses as well is stores. I also have the AIWA S9000 deck which is their flasgship.



ONKYO was more oriented to the exigent buyer, typically closer to what we call today 'prosumer'. Their equipment was always mid to high level, so no low level/cheap gear like AIWA and all the rest.
I remember I bought my first mini HIFI and it was an ONKYO, and I remember very well the catalogue and the seller explaining me that the main difference is that inside there were discrete components (caps, resistances and all that) instead of 4 chips and that's all

My first Onkyo mini HIFI:


And that made a difference. It sounds pretty well, way better that any of my friends's boomboxes and mini HIFs from Pioneer, AIWA, Philips... that seemed more a space ship filled up with full spectrum lights and so many effects that made them look more like a party than as an HIFI.

What I always loved was the super-high-quality mini HIFIs from ONKYO and TEAC from the late 90s. They were built like a tank, super cool design, champange color and excellent performance. In fact I have their 'Liverpool' stack in my living room since several years and it's a pleasure to hear and to look at.

I bought this stack for less than 60€ a few years ago for a friend in a 2nd hand store here.


My actual setup:


Very curious that this deck seems a front-loading mechanism but it's just how it looks. Actually it has the same vertical loading and the majority.

As far as I know, Onkyo never stood out for their decks but they made pretty good amps. Anyway, I have no decks from ONKYO and never tested one, so I cannot say...

 

I never saw those later mini Onkyo's or even the TEACs, Denon was pretty much our cream of the crop mini-stereo but by the 90's everyone was either getting an in your face funky aiwa or Pioneer all in one boombox, Bose Lifestyle, or an early home theatre system.

I've always liked Onkyo Tape Decks but outside of late 70's equipment, I only find the tape decks from the 80s and 90s, they seemed to have never dipped into the entry-level junk with their decks.

ARKAY (Hong Kong) might have been before your time, he used to post like crazy up to around 2012 then he went over to AudioKarma and posted more about component systems. The guy used to find five of everything every week, he was buying M90's and M70's for nothing and said he had multiples of most grails. He got me turned on to a lot of the Marantz/Superscope Boomboxes which he also used to find all the time. He was famous for never posting a photo but had paragraphs of info. The German Guy that had the huge wall of boomboxes went and visited him and confirmed he was telling the truth.

 

Yes, Onkyo decks were mid-range in the late 80s and 90s as far as I know. They were really good in amps, not in decks.
Arkay... hmm, I don't remember him. I usually don't enter boombox forums as I'm mainly interested more in decks and walkmans, but maybe in the old topics we can find some of his posts.
Back in 2012 (I was already here ) I remember I can buy so many excellent stuff for very cheap prices. Nowadays the situation is SO different...