although a higher sample rate yields a better representation of the analog signal, some people can't always tell the difference due to the speakers, the listening environment, the signal path, or even the type of music. Couple that with the fact higher sample rates require a higher-powered computer,fewer tracks and plug-ins are available, and some plug-ins won't work at higher sample rates, and you can see that sometime a lower sample rate can be a better decision when it comes to recording. that said, 96 kHz has become the new standard for music recording, especially since itunes now encourages high-resolution files.