The answer is, it depends. The quality of the A/D converter is the most important factor in analog to digital conversion, but it is closely followed by the quality of the sample rate conversion/word bit reduction processor. Whether done via dedicated hardware or software there are qualitative differences between competing products. My advice is that unless you are going to use truly professional oriented equipment to perform the SRC/word bit reduction to stay at 16 bit/44.1kHz throughout your conversion process. As a point of reference high quality hardware converter starts at around $1,000 and software goes for about $500.
I've converted approximately 500 albums to digital and the sound quality can be quite good. You won't be able to match the volume level of current commercial releases, but you won't have their squashed dynamics either. It's my experience that the word length is far more critical than the sample rate frequency. This is based upon using iTunes as my software interface. iTunes will only playback 16/44 files. If you're using software that allows for higher sampling rates then your results may vary from mine.
BTW, in the long run it would have been substantially cheaper for me to have purchased CDs of the albums. It's very time consuming to properly convert from analog to digital.
I've converted approximately 500 albums to digital and the sound quality can be quite good. You won't be able to match the volume level of current commercial releases, but you won't have their squashed dynamics either. It's my experience that the word length is far more critical than the sample rate frequency. This is based upon using iTunes as my software interface. iTunes will only playback 16/44 files. If you're using software that allows for higher sampling rates then your results may vary from mine.
BTW, in the long run it would have been substantially cheaper for me to have purchased CDs of the albums. It's very time consuming to properly convert from analog to digital.