No. Here's how I think of it, others who answered I'm glad for correction as needed.
- Let's say the player outputs 2 volts. Then I think the smallest bit represents 2/(2^16) = 2/65536 = 0.000030517578125 volts. S/N=96 dB.
- At 24 bits you'd have 2/16777216 = 1.19209289551e-7 volts. Oooh it's way smaller, so more resolution!
But I guess the original 16 bits can encode the amplitude re-creatably within the original 96 dB "perfectly" more or less. All the tinier bits let you do is encode smaller and smaller, i.e. "into the noise floor" kinda sorta, or into tinier sounds for more dynamic range (S/N like 144 dB). I'm vaguely paraphrasing another poster in another thread, echoing snippets I learned in engineering school.
What I still have never seen is a good explanation of what happens if you're running at 96k or even 192k, and don't lowpass filter. Yeah, ultrasonic images wrapping into the audio range, the horror, the horror, do it to Julia! Er, but microphones don't usually pick up much above audio frequencies do they? And do quiet studios really have much ultrasonic noise? Seems to me that there just wouldn't be much to alias in the first place. ????
