Herb,
Great Article! Michael we should have this up on the top page every couple months to remind people that it's about the musical experience and not the numbers.
We should also remember that just because we can, doesn't mean we should. Sample rates, upsampling, oversampling, higher and higher. Look... If you record today with the best AD converters in the world the max sample rate is 192K and in most cases artist have found that using anything over 88.2K sounds bad to them.
I work with a lot of artists and always ask what they record at and it's surprising how many say 24/88.2K. Nobody told them this, but over time they found that if they use this rate it sounds best and of course it is easily converter to 16/44.1.
The same thing with DAC chips, though they have better specs than most AD chips, the use of excessive sample rates just because you can doesn't mean it will sound better than lower ones.
Take some time to listen and compare.
On a side note if you don't play an instrument, it's never too late to learn. Playing music can really help you with your audio as you really have a true reference for what a note is and how it should sound. A percussionist since 13, I picked up guitar about 12 years ago. Having even a simple $500 acoustic around to pluck on can reform your ideas on your system.
Thanks,
Gordon