Sample-rate debates bring out a special kind of confidence in people. So let’s stay calm and stick to what’s established: the sampling theorem says you need a rate just over twice the highest frequency you want to capture. Human hearing tops out around 20 kHz on a great day. That’s why 44.1 and 48 kHz exist — they cover the audible band with room to spare.
What higher rates actually buy: more relaxed filter design at the converter, lower latency at a given buffer, and headroom for extreme pitch/stretch work in sound design, where slowing a file reveals content above the audible band. Real benefits. Niche benefits.
What they don’t buy: “more detail” in the band you can hear. The audible range is fully described at standard rates — that’s the theorem, not an opinion. Meanwhile 192 kHz quadruples file sizes, quarters your plugin count, and some gear performs measurably worse handling ultrasonics it was never asked to reproduce.
The honest position: track at 48 kHz, spend the saved CPU on better takes, and let sound designers use the high rates they genuinely need. Nobody ever streamed your song and said “shame about the sample rate.”
If a number on a spec sheet were audible, we’d all hear the difference between our interfaces. We hear the difference between our rooms.