Can you elaborate on that a little?

i/o 24 bit

Maybe say pertaining to CD redbook. Why do we use 16 bit redbook, instead of 24 bit redbook? Or even better just redbook that can read a disc at any bit resolution?
Like if I were to send a disc off to get mastered, I would idealistically want to send the highest bit resolution I have avail. at the time. This being 24 bit
But if I print at 16 bit, how much does this affect the sound quality?
My point is that obviously the higher end (better quality) DAC & ADC would be the quality of the analog to digital conversion (and vise versa) but, why is it known that 16 bit is not as good as 20 bit, and 20 bit is not as good as 24 bit, but we never talk about rated D to A converters in this practicle way?

Bit depth can be equated to amplitude or dynamics. Higher bit depth signals can more accurately describe amplitude changes and can also describe a greater dynamic range.

If you had only a one bit signal, when working with PCM and not DSD, you would only be able to describe on or off. As you increase that bit depth, you could begin to describe volume as well.

Dynamic resolution becomes very important when any DSP is applied to a signal (a plugin, digital FX, or digital summing). For example, if you add 2 and 5 and 3 you get 10. Then lets say that signal needs to be evenly split three ways to determine the average signal, but your bit depth is not high enough to descibe the decimal point needed for 10 divided by three. Now your signal is not as accurate as it should be. If you increase your bit depth, your system would be able to more accurately describe the result of 10 divided by three. This can be complicated further with fixed and floating point calculations.

I hope this answers your bit depth question.

-Erik

Consumer CD players only play 16bit/ 44.1 kHz. So we have to get "down" to that format. After all they pay the bills.

The later we do the "down-quality" treatment the better.

So if you send stuff away for mastering, send it at whatever resolution you are using (as high as possible).

Personally I record everything at 24bit, sometimes keeps files at 32 bit floats to gain some more control. Down to 16bit as last step in burning CD and using dithering only there.

Gunnar