I'm not even quite sure how to phrase my question, but here it goes...

Jond:
I am streaming via Bluesound vault so I guess there is no way to see the bit count. 
Perhaps after I quit Amazon HD I'll try the free month subscription to Qobuz and see if I can detect the difference. 

Op
If you are streaming via the Vault you MUST be using some mobile app interface either on,phone or tablet, iPad etc.
Right there it should tell you the streaming information, i owned the Vault2 for a long time and it would tell me right on the Bluos app what the streaming quality was/is.

I do not remember if it was only displayed on the individual track info while it was playing but it should be there somewhere.

Eric gave a good a concise description.  I'll add that the LEDs you see include both actual sampling rates (44.1 and 48k samples/sec) but also a multiple (176k) Multiples are for when the source (CD player, streamer, really fast typer) "up-samples" the music.  This does not increase information, but rather is a trick to move noise out of band and make it easier to design linear, good sounding filters.  You may hear of 2x, 4x, 8x oversampling.  That's what gets you from 44.1 to 176.4.
I'll weigh in on "44/16 is really very good" though.  The problem is often the recording engineer, mastering process etc.  I can make a strong case for 24/192 in a studio - it allows for slop in level setting, and for losses while digitally mastering, yet still retains full fidelity. In the home playback equipment it is far less clear.
Typically more up/oversampling is better, but only integer multiples.
I'd spend more time on a good low-noise, low jitter USB/network feed than on bit depth games.
As Eric the pool guy says, digital music is basically a bar chart where the bars are the samples and the smoothed line connecting them is the music. With enough samples its really good!
Njoy

61falcon,

The Bluesound Vault app on tablet or mobile phone does not display streaming resolution. Your DAC LED light is a good indicator of that minus the bits info.

To elaborate ‘itjustnotme’ point, one mustn’t confuse the native high resolution file vs upsampled file from a low resolution. I would also check Vault audio settings and tweak the sound to your liking. I have my Vault’s tone controls turned off cause I only use Vault for its ripping capabilities.

If you have a really good DAC it doesn't matter as much. I have a Benchmark DAC and play HiRes 24/192 files, DSD files, Tidal / Tidal Masters and CDs and some 16/44 files and 24/96 files sound soundcbetter than 24/192 It depends on quality of initial recording. I have a Boston DSD FILE and it seems a bit more airy and better highs but not as warm as CD quality.  Also if you read any articles from Benchmark they believe you don't really need better than 24/96 with their technology and how good their DACs are engineered and how they eliminate jitter and other artifacts. They also think the process to do MQA degrades the signal and thus they do not offer as believe it does not make better sound. 
All in all I've found in my system it greatly depends on the quality of the recording and the bit rate and resolution matter less than the initial recording quality.