Is bit depth about dynamic range or data?

[tmtomh]

17 hours ago, fas42 said:

 

Yes, if one is talking about it as a purely technical level concept - but dynamic range is thrown around these days as having subjective connotations - as in, "orchestral performances can't be captured by 16 bits, the sound is, too big!" ... I was referring to this subjective take on the matter.

 

Except that's not a subjective take on the matter - it's just an imprecise one. If an orchestral performance's dynamic range is 96dB or less, then it can be fully captured by 16 bits, as per @mansr's point above that all sound pressure levels above the noise floor are captured equally accurately. If the dynamic range of the performance is more than 96dB, then it cannot be fully captured at 16 bits (although the use of noise-shaping dither combined with nonlinear human hearing sensitivity and the non-uniform frequency distribution of the musical sounds mean that in practice even a performance with a dynamic range greater than 96dB usually can be effectively fully captured at 16 bits).