Let me state for the record that I'm a total noob when it comes to Hi-Fi sound systems, but I am rather picky about the sound quality. Normally I listen to CD recordings ripped to FLAC in 16/44, but I have several albums that are also ripped from vinyls to FLAC in 24/96. But it seems that I can't tell the difference between 16-bit and 24-bit versions (except for some vinyl noises, of course). That can be due to several reasons:

• my equipment (onboard audio, monitor headphones) isn't good enough to make any difference,
• my system is not playing audio in 24-bit 96 kHz,
• I am physically unable to hear the difference.

So here is my question, how do I tell if my system can play 24-bit sound with 96 or 192 kHz resolution? And if it can, how do I tell that it plays it instead of downsampling to 16-bit / 44 kHz?

Also, what hardware (audio cards, amplifiers, etc.) would you recommend to play such recordings on Ubuntu?