Do we really need anything greater than 24/96? Opinions?

I pretty much agree with much of what has been said--except.  I have a  very high revealing system, Apogee Scintillas/Krell KSA80B and a Meridian Ultra Dac.  I find in general, as the sample rate goes up, the sound does get better.  The best material seems to be classical at 352.  Its the spacial info about the hall and the air around the instruments thats a little better.  I also in general find that MQA on top of good material is the best--and once again I find poor stuff at 44.1 and I find great stuff at 44.1.  For my ears, listening for the music to be in the room, the artist, the sound engineer, higher bit rate, higher bit depth, and MQA all improve the sound.  

No in fact you need to go to 16 44.1

Its way better sounding with more Jam and Soul.

Nothing wrong with Red Book CD using a half decent player;  once again Audiophiles, going in those ever tightening circles, have shot themselves in the foot in search of the Holy Grail, and better Magic Mushrooms.

I have a different angle on this topic. I have the Audio Note DAC5 and have had several top DSD dacs and high rez PCM dacs in my system as well.

The DAC5 is a NOS dac and can take up to 24/192 with the latest receiver chip. My finding is that on redbook or natively recorded higher rez it is superior to any oversampling dac I have encountered. DSD natively recorded has a the edge as well over oversampling dacs but the DAC5 is simply much more magical on redbook vs redbook through the DSD dac.

Native DSD has a lot going for it and I feel it also sounds free of the OS artifacts but I have not encountered a DSD dac  that competes with the DAC5 or the "Killer Dac"

Every oversampling dac I have heard has some artifact that I hear now that I have heard the NOS multibit and DSD dac's .

My observation is that NOS 16/44 is enough to give goosebumps in the best of systems and natively recorded 24/96 through a NOS dac has slightly more air and natural shimmer but only the slightest amount.  It is very probable that the people who find the big benefits from native high rez are benefiting from lower levels of oversampling happening.

Do we really need anything greater than 24/96? Opinions?

If you have a good R2R ladder dac that does PCM 24/96, then you have as good as it gets.

Cheers George