I don't know about music and audio, but your photography comparison is incorrect for two reasons. First, as msandford pointed out, the human eye has significan

I don't know about music and audio, but your photography comparison is incorrect for two reasons. First, as msandford pointed out, the human eye has significantly better dynamic range than image sensors. Technically, our eyes have a lower range at any specific instant, but due to the way our eyes work we effectively see upwards of 20 stops of dynamic range. The best sensors available (in medium format cameras, pro-DSLRs, etc) can only capture 14-15 stops. Second, some black and white films have a better dynamic range than digital sensors, so it's also not the case that digital is strictly better. 18-20 stops isn't unheard of for some types of film.