I think 16-bit is fine for basically every "enjoyment of music" use. I do have a hardware player capable of playing 24-bit audio, and I use it, but it's not som

I think 16-bit is fine for basically every "enjoyment of music" use. I do have a hardware player capable of playing 24-bit audio, and I use it, but it's not some breathtaking experience. When the source is analog (like these old records), I can see the argument for preserving them at the highest reasonable depth. The fundamental purpose of the archive is to preserve, regardless of whether or not people subjectively prefer the sound. If the subjective experience of 24-bit is unpleasant to some people, you can always go down, but you can't add back bits that were never captured, so it's my opinion that 24 is the appropriate format here. Of course, from a philosophical perspective, we're still talking about two methods for reaching infinity and which gets "closer"