Is bit depth about dynamic range or data?

[Teresa]

11 hours ago, audiojerry said:

I thought after all this time I was correctly explaining bit depth and sample rates to my non-audiophile friends, but now I"m not so sure. I thought that bit depth or bit size determines how much information can be captured in a single sample taken from an analog signal. So if, for example, you are recording a symphony orchestra, there are lots of instruments creating a lot of complex tonal information and sound  levels. This creates a complex analog waveform, and when you take a sample of this waveform, you are going to digitize it and store it in a file. This single sample of the waveform would obviously contain a lot of information about what was happening in this symphony orchestra in that instant of time. The larger the bit depth, the more information you can capture, and you have a better quality file to produce a better quality recording.

 

But now I'm hearing that bit depth is all about dynamic range. That seems too simplistic to me.  

Any experts out there who can set me straight?

 

That is also the way I understand it. For a 16bit 44.1kHz music file samples are taken 44,100 times each second. In this case the sample is a 16 bit word represented by 1's and 0's, but just need to be two different states such as lands and pits on CDs. That 16 bit word has to completely describe the music that occurred during that 44,100th of a second. If this is not correct I also would like to know.