A couple years ago I heard Michael Fremer demo some CDs he'd made from his LPs. In his case he had the best LP playback rigs imaginable. The CDs were easily better sounding than commercial ones.
As to ripping to 24/96 or 24/88.2, those sampling rates and word length handily beat redbook. A month ago I was at another hi-fi event and heard both redbook and 24/88.2 hi-rez versions of some recordings. The 24/88.2 rips sound very close to LP--not quite, but close--and they're way more emotive and involving than 16/44.1.
I consider the 24 bits more important than the sampling frequency, at least above 48K. 16 bit only gives you 64K increments of amplitude; 24 bit gives you 16M increments. That difference in amplitude resolution is where musical expression of the artist and the beginnings and ends of notes lives.
As to ripping to 24/96 or 24/88.2, those sampling rates and word length handily beat redbook. A month ago I was at another hi-fi event and heard both redbook and 24/88.2 hi-rez versions of some recordings. The 24/88.2 rips sound very close to LP--not quite, but close--and they're way more emotive and involving than 16/44.1.
I consider the 24 bits more important than the sampling frequency, at least above 48K. 16 bit only gives you 64K increments of amplitude; 24 bit gives you 16M increments. That difference in amplitude resolution is where musical expression of the artist and the beginnings and ends of notes lives.