Ok. Time for analogy in DECIMAL. You all have 10 fingers I hope.

I'm only explaining the 16 vs 24bit because you need to understand that first.

Say we have a new currency called the dollar.

But it's limited to 4 digits.

0 to 9999.

10 years goes by with this new currency.

Every is priced in dollars.
Money is printed in dollars.
Trading is done in dollars.
Gold is in dollars.
Machines accept dollars.
etc.

Nothing cost more than 9999 dollars in this little world. But also no less than 1 dollar.

But folks are complaining they can't sell something for 1.5 dollars or 0.5 dollars. They don't have enough granularity (resolution). They don't care about the 9999 limit, it's fine.

Ok we need a new 6 digit system.

We could do it two ways.

1) Burn all the currency we have and introduce a new currency called the minidollar (worth 1/100 of dollar). Range is from 000000 999999 (6 digits). Reprice everything. Redo all machines that accept dollars. Man that's expensive.

2) Or we introduce an additional coin, called a Penny (1/100 of a dollar). Still 6 Digits. But now we can go from 0000.00 to 9999.99. And folks are happy because a dollar is STILL a dollar. Old currency can stay as is. Old machines still work and people can now charge a 1.5 dollars or 0.50 dollars. Only new machines that need to accept pennies need to be built (think better DACs here, but old DACs work too).

The only thing different is where we put the decimal point in the two choices. Same resolution on both schemes. Both 6 digits. But second scheme is more compatible with the original 4 digit system.

That's what happens when you go from 16bit to 24bit. They only added fractions to the bottom. They don't go any louder.

The top 16-bits are still the same SIZE (loudness). That did not change.

The top bit in 16-bits is just as loud at the top bit in 24bits. Actually all 16 top bits are the SAME.

Just like in the currency system the top digit is the same size in 4 digit scheme and the 6 digit scheme. 1000 == 1000.00 or 9999 == 9999.00




- Fiddler (IMHO)

If you think listening to music is fun, try learning an instrument.
HT: G61RSL, 4x5K, 5.5KHC, 2xSC6000, Transporter, HD621, Philips BDP7501 4K, Tivo, 65" LG OLED 4K C6
Computer: Foobar2000, 5K, Mojo, HiFiMan HE1000 V2