This is an interesting read. It also explains to a degree why I believe the sampling rate is equal to or more important than the bit rate for true hirez listening.
http://www.mother-of-tone.com/cd.htm
http://www.mother-of-tone.com/cd.htm
My opinion goes like this:
We can have higher fidelity with 16 bits amplitude resolution and 10 or more sample-points per wave-period, as we can recover the original signal with a very small amount of beat products (less than1%).
As we cannot meet all those infinity requirements of exact sampling according to Shannon in the real world, and because of those issues that the sharp filters do not necessarily sound best to our ears, we can loosen all those sharp conditions by just sampling faster.
And then we can achieve better sound quality in reality, not just on the paper.