Sweet Harmony

To music lovers and electronics manufacturers, digital audio tape represented a terrific technological leap -- a way to make crisp, distortion-free copies of compact discs and digital broadcasts. But recording-industry artists and executives heard an entirely different tune. To them, DAT would dampen compact disc sales, because one CD could be used to make countless perfect copies. The upshot of the argument was that DAT recorders, sold in Japan and Europe for about two years, have been virtually unavailable in the U.S. Now the two sides have at last found a way to end their dispute. Result: before long Americans will be able to enjoy the superior sounds of DAT in homes, in cars or on strolls down the sidewalk.

The agreement between the manufacturers and the recording industry states that every DAT recorder will contain a computer chip that digitally encodes a signal on the tape when the first copy is made. This inaudible code will prevent a machine from making subsequent copies of that tape. That way, consumers can make a copy of a CD to play in their cars or portable machines, but that copy cannot be used to mass-produce more tapes to give or sell to other people.

DAT uses the same digital recording technology that produces the clear tone of the compact disc. And just as the CD sounds better than a regular LP, a DAT tape is a quantum advance from a standard audio tape. The DAT tape is also conveniently small: 2 3/4 in. long, compared with 4 in. for an ordinary cassette. But better sound will initially come at a high price: DAT recorders are expected to run at least $1,000, and prerecorded tapes could cost more than $25. The recorders, along with DAT tapes of everyone from Mozart to | Madonna, could start appearing in U.S. stores before the end of the year.