[zajio1am]

> That really doesn't make any sense. The bit depth provides for a dynamic range ... 16 bits is enough to go from "mosquito in the room" to "jackhammer right in your ear".

Dynamic range is not loudest sound / quitest sound ratio (as would one expect), but loudest sound / noise level ratio. Otherwise you would need to count additional bits to encode quietest sound with low enough quantization noise.

Threshold of hearing could be as low as -9 dB SPL, so one wound want noise level below that. Therefore with 96 dB dynamic range from 16 bits the loudest representable sound would be say 86 dB SPL. But symphonic orchestra music may have peaks way above 100 dB.