How to get the best recording?

[commalot]

Please excuse my ignorance. I have GS3 and Sonar 5. I'm using them with a 2.8 P4 and an M-Audio Firewire 410. The samples sound great playing from the computer but there is always a degradation of sound when creating an audio track. I'm currently operating at 48kHz, 24bit. It didn't seem much better at 96kHz. I don't mean to say there is a really significant degradation. It just isn't as good as the played samples. What is a better way to get a really rich and good recording? DAT recorders? Better CD recording gear? Thanks for any advice you can give me.
David M.

[commalot]

I figured it out with some further testing. I was recording "RIFF" waves (whatever they are) and Windows Media Player wouldn't play them so I had to use Quicktime which was degrading the sound. I just tryed recording in "Broadcast" wave which plays fine and sounds very good.
David M