Digital audio tapes (DATs) are a type of magnetic tape used for recording and playing back high-quality digital audio. Developed in the 1980s, DATs were a popular format for professional audio recording and archiving due to their high fidelity and reliability. DATs use a helical scan method to record digital audio signals onto a narrow strip of magnetic tape, with a sampling rate of 48 kHz and a resolution of 16 bits. This results in a high-quality digital audio signal that can be played back with minimal degradation in sound quality. Despite their popularity in the professional audio industry, DATs were never widely adopted by consumers due to their high cost and the emergence of other digital audio formats such as CDs and MP3s. Additionally, the format was plagued by issues with piracy and copyright infringement, leading to restrictions on the sale and distribution of DAT recorders and tapes in some countries. Today, DATs are largely obsolete and have been replaced by more modern digital audio formats such as WAV and FLAC. However, they remain an important part of the history of digital audio recording and are still used by some professional audio engineers for archival purposes.
digital audio, magnetic tape, high fidelity, sampling rate, resolution
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