DAT

In 1982 when Sony and Philips introduced the compact disc, record companies had a new format that was perceived as superior to vinyl and cassette, and was impossible for the consumers to duplicate in a digital format, since personal computers with recordable CD drives weren't yet available.
In 1986 when Sony introduced the DAT (digital audio tape, also called R-DAT) it was supposed to be a new digital format for consumers who could use it to both play and record digital audio.
Unlike the DASH (digital audio stationary head) tape recorders that were in use at that time, this was a rotary-head format like both the Nippon Columbia recorder used to make the first digital LP released in 1971 ...(That one used a 2" quad-scan videotape deck,)... and the F-1 and Sony PCM-1600 systems in the 1980s, that used a ¾" U-matic video recorder. The spinning heads improved the tape to head speed, but made it impossible to edit by cutting and splicing.
DATs could record at a variety of sample rates from 32 kHz up to 48 kHz, but all at 16-bit. These tapes range in length from 15 minutes up to 180 minutes and even longer for DATA archival DATs, but the longest practical length, used by media professionals, was 125 minutes.
Because there was a strong possibility that material released on DAT could be easily pirated, the DAT failed as a consumer format. However, for a decade from 1990 to 2000, almost every professional project, from broadcast production, to stereo music mixes, to production sound for movies, was recorded to DAT.