Re: 44.1 vs 48 khz... looking for a simple answer
CD masters were originally made using videotape editing gear and the disk uses Philips' video disk technology that allows replication in a vinyl plant. Only Sony's marketing ever claimed any kind of "perfection" in 44.1k sample rate. Under the hood, it's video!
Arguments about "Nyquist" conveniently ignore the fact that he was assuming infinite slope filters having zero artifacts which exist only in mathematics and not the real world. Minimizing filter artifacts and aliasing within the audible range are the only reasons to use higher sample rates.
Gentle filters produce fewer artifacts however this is at the expense of higher sample rates in order to eliminate aliasing. It's all about the filters and nothing but the filters. Normal digital signal processing involves a great many filters that accumulate artifacts one wants to minimize.
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