[ugh]

If I understand you correctly, going from 44.1kHz to 48kHz would be worth it on the playback side of things?

That wouldn’t seem like it would be all that hard to do. CDs are a legacy format now and AAC files don’t care about the sampling rate (if you don’t want to go beyond 96kHz).

What’s stopping that? Have all the audio engineers pipelines that are only capably of outputting 44.1kHz? (I imagine someone at Sony Music sitting in a dark room and ripping CDs all day – probably not true but a funny enough picture.)

Then again, after doing a blind test (256kbps AAC, CD) and being unable to tell the difference (yeah, I know, that’s not the same as a difference in sampling rate) I’m skeptical of all supposed small improvements in audio quality on the playback side.

[Ryanmf]

Last year I bought a 14 input, 24 bit, 44.1/48/88.2/96kHz audio interface for $100. Granted, it's not supposed to cost so little, no one cares about MSRP but it runs twice that on Amazon, more at Guitar Center, and typically no less than $170 on eBay. I just happened to get a good deal on Craigslist.

Anyway, the issue isn't one of hardware limitations; Call it old guys fearing technology, call it the Red Book cartel, call it whatever you want, it's inertia.