You could make cassettes sound very good, but it cost a fortune. Nakamichi did it to universal acclaim, with some incredible engineering. Even the cheaper machines were classics, although they didn't match the performance of the sound of the high-end Dragon.
I don't think anyone else came close, metal tape or no.
DAT was obviously better but it was famously unreliable because of dropouts and tape alignment issues between different machines.
I had that exact model of DAT. I used it to record some content for a video project, took the tape in for dubbing, and it refused to work on the studio machine.
I had to do a 150 mile round trip to bring my home machine in. I never fully trusted DAT after that.
I don't think anyone else came close, metal tape or no.
DAT was obviously better but it was famously unreliable because of dropouts and tape alignment issues between different machines.
I had that exact model of DAT. I used it to record some content for a video project, took the tape in for dubbing, and it refused to work on the studio machine.
I had to do a 150 mile round trip to bring my home machine in. I never fully trusted DAT after that.