"Gareth Hardy" wrote in
message
Higher resolution - up to 96KHz compared to 44.1KHz for CD audio)

No audible benefits.

CD players use tricks to smooth out the waveform at high frequencies
because of the fewer sampling points there.

Irrelevant and wrong.

I'm not an audio expert, but I thought that having a higher sampling
rate is not primarily to benefit the high frequency waveforms.

What higher sampling rates do is allow recording and playing back of waves
at higher frequencies. That's different than benefiting high frequency waves
that are recorded by a given sample rate.

It creates a smoother waveform at lower frequencies so polyphonics sound
clearer.

Wrong. Since you admit you don't know what you are talking about, let me
tell you the basics.

A properly-designed and operating digital system provides essentially
perfect reproduction of all waves (subject to sample size and format
considerations) up to a frequency equal to about half the sample rate, AKA
the Nyquist frequency. For audio CDs that's about 22 KHz. For a variety of
practical reasons, Nyquist is hard to approach exactly , but a 44.1 KHz CD
can reasonably be expected to work up to about 20 KHz.

IOW on an audio CD, 20 Hz and 20 KHz are reproduced with equal accuracy.
There are more samples in the 20 Hz wave, but believe it or not that makes
no practical difference at all.

As well as being no expert, chances are I wouldn't notice the
difference between 44.1KHz audio and 96KHz anyway.

That comes from being human and not a bat or a dog.