Um... I don't think that's correct way. With 8 bit at 96k the noise is spread through wider bandwidth. When you convert that to 16 bit at 44.1k, that lower noise floor remains and it is not something, that would fit an actual 8 bit at 44.1k.
That was of course intention to push the noise energy upwards, to make it less audible for human hearing. Please take into account that downsampling to 44.1/16 does not increase the resolution that was lost by upsampling to 96/8. If you do not like the method, you may compare the 96/8 byproduct with the 44.1/16 original, with the same result, or with original resampled to 96/16, again with the same result. The trouble with 8 bit files is that they are unsigned wav and not every software would play it, some will refuse to play. So I did not post the 96/8 vs. 96/16.
The key here is that the resolution in the manipulated file has remained 8 bit, even if the noise audible to humans was reduced. The noise energy, however, was not reduced, SNR as a ratio to rms noise remains only at 40 dB, as was shown in post #19. You get better SNR at lower frequencies at the expense of worse SNR at high frequencies, intentionally, as you know how the human hearing works.
@RayDunzl , when doing experiments with dither, please keep in mind there is not just one dither, but there are many versions - rectangular, TPD (both frequency independent) and then there is also a set of frequency dependent dithering methods - noise shaped that push the noise energy to high frequencies.
Noise shaping is also the method that almost all DACs work, if you feed them with 44.1/16 file they will internally upsample it to 384/32 or 768/32 format with noise shaping. The resolution still remains 16 dB, few dB of SNR is gained (shown in God of SINAD thread).
God of SINAD vs. reality we get from most available music files There is a good thread here in ASR discussing the practical importance of SINAD number https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/could-we-all-be-wrong-about-sinad.26480/ which links to the original article at...
www.audiosciencereview.com