I used beta hi-fi, so I can only tell you about that VCR format.
Mixing and mastering to super beta-hi-fi was fairly popular at one time... VHS hi-fi to a lesser extent. Incorporating a hi-fi VCR in a digital system can have some benefit, but it will not have the dramatic effect you can achieve by pushing an open-reel machine. In fact you cannot push it much at all... it is more like digital at 0 VU going into harsh distortion a bit above that point. It uses AFM (Audio frequency modulation) to put the signal on tape.
I still have a Sony super beta hi-fi I bought for mixdown in the 80’s, and I prefer it to mastering to digital. For those that are already on the analog bandwagon (I’m not trying to make any converts here) you will have the same infinite resolution as analog tape without the sampling artifacts of digital. The high end is full and thick like analog tape, for lack of a better term.
You’ll have clean recordings with perhaps just enough harmonic distortion (0.3%) to give your music some analog character… but nothing like reel-to-reel. The character may be more accurately described as undigital.
The tape you use makes a difference. Sony PRO-X was probably the best consumer beta tape, but you will rarely find it new anymore (except at my house). A little secret… professional betacam tape can be used in beta hi-fi machines and the high-grade broadcast quality stuff like BCT-30G is the same formulation as PRO-X. TDK SA betamax is another tape that I had great results with.
I see the Sony betacam tape selling new on eBay now and then. Betacam travels at about 10 times the speed of betamax BII, so a betacam tape labeled as 30 minutes long is equivalent to a betamax L-750 tape, which is about 3 hours of run time. In other words BCT-30G is a 30-minute tape in the betacam world, but 3 hours in a betamax VCR at BII speed. A lot of the later generation beta hi-fi machines wouldn't record at BI speed... That's why I'm referencing beta II speed.
