[nullc]

> and yet, we are nowhere near being able to electronically reproduce a live acoustic music performance.

That has a lot more to do with the spatial component of the audio than anything else.

Unfortunately, surround sound sufficient to really reproduce acoustic fields (and not just sound effects ping ponging around) require more cost and concessions in the listening room than many are willing to tolerate.

So long as people continue to get the engineering wrong and think the sampling rate and bit-depth have anything to do with it we'll probably continue to see the market invest in the wrong solutions.