"Michael Chare" wrote

Yes I have proved that point, as I found that my daughter could quite
easily distinguish between 16/44 and 24/96 flac music files when played
via my hifi, where as I struggle to do this.

How about 16/96, can your daughter tell the difference between that and
24/96? or for that matter how about distinguishing between 16/48 and */96?

What I'm suggesting is that for domestic playback 24 bit depth is always
pointless (ie. nobody can hear the difference) and that the slight increase
in sampling rate to 48kHz (as found on DVDs etc.) will possibly satisfy most
of the minority who can hear past 20kHz.

What limits the quality of domestically reproduced music nowadays is the
quality of the original recording, the disc mastering, the loudspeakers
and the acoustic environment of the listening area.

That has been the case for a long time.

Not in the days of vinyl. Then the disc playing system was also significant.

David.