Originally Posted By: Simon - PG Music
Originally Posted By: Gordon Scott
Sampling at 96kHz has benefits because the anti-aliassing filters can be gentler and have fewer phase artifacts. Once recorded, though, there's really negligible (possibly nil) benefit in a higher sample rate until one gets to the final digital-to-analogue stage, when up-sampling to allow a gentler filter can again be a benefit.

Correct, however oversampling provides that same benefit even when recording at 44.1kHz.

I hope I didn't mislead there. High sampling rates, e.g. oversampling, at the interface between analogue and digital is essentially always beneficial, whatever the final data rate.

The essential bit is not particularly the final sample-rate, but the 'clean'-ness of the filters, mostly those used for anti-aliasing the sampling. Most or all of us know how high-Q filters sound when used on synthesisers ... for good fidelity we want about the lowest Q we can manage.

44.1kHz is perfectly fine for most people. It does seem a shame, though, if one needs to up-sample to 48kHz.

(FWIW, I had a quick look at some datasheets from a while back ... a TI part with a 2014 datasheet offering 192kHz sampling at 24bit. Similar had been done well before that by using multiple ADCs. Several parts today offer 768kHz at 32-bit and around 120dB s/n.)

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
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