This is an important point. The main reason that pro audio gear pushes bit depth and sample rate up to higher that 16/44.1 audio is because when you start doing the floating point math to mix and apply effects to audio you can end up with audible differences when multitrack recording. In this case (and I still think it’s optional for all but the most demanding recording of live performance) higher sample rates can help and to a lesser degree but depth can give you more dynamic range.
I give that long preamble to say once a record is done and mastered, having > 16/44.1khz is wasted bandwidth.
I give that long preamble to say once a record is done and mastered, having > 16/44.1khz is wasted bandwidth.