Was Beta as good as or better than reel to reel?

How about VHS Hifi?

I have tapes I recorded back in the 80s also in that format. Haven't played them in awhile though.

It was definitely better than cassette in regards to noise levels and dynamic range. Not sure if it matched reel to reel or not.

I had an Akai hifi VHS unit I bought in an audio shop (yes audio only) that was the bomb that I fixed several times to keep running. It was the bomb for vhs hifi recording.

I still have the Sony hifi vhs that replaced it. Not bad, but I lost interest in recording to vhs hifi when recordable cd-r for music came out.

Of course you can still buy hifi vhs recorders I think. I suspect a good Sony or equivalent to sound pretty good!

Still keep the old Yamaha cassette recorder hooked up to my system but never record there anymore, mostly used to play cassettes I recorded years ago. Other than higher background noise levels than digital, the sound is pretty good.