[ruuda]

Do you mean “the expression ‘16-bit’ sounds harsh to my ears”, or do you mean that you can hear the difference between 16 and 24 bits per sample?

The effect of bit depth has little to do with how you perceive the sound; what adding more bits does is allowing for more dynamic range, i.e. more difference between the loudest possible and the quietest possible sound. More bits brings down the noise floor. This means that for example the final part of a fade-out retains more detail at 24 bits than at 16, but this difference is not something that you would be able to observe in normal listening conditions.

If you like to learn more about the effects of bit depth, I would recommend “Digital Show & Tell” by Xiph Mont at https://www.xiph.org/video/.

[SomeoneFromCA]

Is there any difference between those two expressions. Overall - yes you are right, 24 do sound better. Loss of details and replacement of them with digital (aggressive, non-random, correlated) noise indeed sounds harsh.