two things
1. for all the ua-5 users, I have found 24-bit to be worth it. I ran the ua-5 into a lappy at 24 bit since Jan. I recently busted out the jb3 for a couple shows. I had prime fob sweet spot location and was excited to hear the results; after listening on the stereo I was pretty dissapointed. The recording just didn't shine like past ones, it seemed "dull" as opposed to being "lively". Is this what people are calling "musical"? Anyway, I REALLY want to run a head to head ua-5 comparison, one at 16 and one at 24. This brings up another question: Does the ua-5 have any sort of noise-shaping algorithm for 16-bit?
2. we all know the rate of improvement in technology is very fast. I like to think that in the future, maybe even past our lifetimes, digital audio technology could be beyond our very comprehension. By using the highest bit-depth and sample rate possible, we could be doing future audio technicians a favor for whatever advances techniques and solutions they might have. Think about all the remastering being done to timeless recordings from the past/analog era; they've worked wonders.