sample rate conversion quality issues

FYI - You can not record to a DAT @ 24 bit. Only 16 bit @ 44.1 or 48.0 kHz......

Regarding your other question -> you will get the best resolution when you record at the highest rez rates possible. A recording made at 24 bit/44.1 khz (and then downsampled to 16 bit/44.1 for playback) should sound noticeably better than a recording made at 16 bit/44.1 khz. However, you want to make sure that you are using good digital conversion software (or hardware) that does not introduce artifacts when downsampling. Also, make sure that your software/hardware dithers to 16 bit and does not truncate the data when converting to 16 bit.

paul

Yeah, what Paul said. There are some people who think it's better to record at 44.1 (if that is the final destination) and skip the conversion. I haven't compared the two. You might want to try both and see if you hear a difference.

Continuing Phild's comment, I've heard that if you plan to drop a digital recording to 44K that it's best to record at a sample rate that is an even multiple of 44K. So in that case, recording at 44K or 88K would be better than 48K or 96K. Logically it makes sense to me as converting from 48K to 44K would require much more calculations and therefore more chances for errors.