The point of higher sample rates isn't to capture bat squeaks, but to relax the engineering constraints on pre-post filtering.

Nyquist is fine in theory, and if you've never actually tried to implement a clean filter you'll likely watch the xiph video and think "Well that makes sense."

If actually know something about practical DSP and the constraints and challenges of real filter design you're not going to be quite so easily impressed.

Likewise with higher bit depths. "Common sense" suggests that no one should be able to hear a noise signal at -90dB.

Common sense is dead wrong, because the effects of a single bit of dither are absolutely audible.

And if you can hear the effects of noise added at -90dB, you can certainly hear the effects of quantisation noise artefacts on reverb tails and long decaying notes at -30 to -40dB, added by recording at 16 bits instead of 24 bits.

Whether or not that level of detail is present in a typical pop or classical recording is a different issue. Realistically most music is heavily compressed and limited, so the answer is usually "no."

And not all sources have 24-bits of detail [1]. (Recordings made on the typical digital multitrack machines used in the 80s and 90s certainly don't.)

That doesn't mean that a clean unprocessed recording of music with a wide dynamic range made on no-compromise equipment won't show the difference clearly.

Speaking from experience, it certainly does.

[1] Technically no sources have 24-bits of detail. The best you'll get from a real world converter is around 22-bits.

What video? This thread is about an article.

> The point of higher sample rates isn't to capture bat squeaks, but to relax the engineering constraints on pre-post filtering.

I just said that, I think.