Can you imagine a world without vinyl?

Shadorne...How many bits you need depends on the size of the bits. Lets suppose that the analog signal dynamic range going in to the A/D is 0 to 1.5 volts. If I make each bit 0.5 volts I can cover the range (represent a 1.5 volt sine wave) with just three bits. (Sign and two bit magnitude).

0 1 1 ..... -1.5 volts
0 1 0 ..... -1.0 volts
0 0 1 ..... -0.5 volts
1 0 0 ..... +0.0 volts
1 0 1 ..... +0.5 volts
1 1 0 ..... +1.0 volts
1 1 1 ..... +1.5 volts

Obviously the resolution is terible! If I make each bit 0.05 volts the resolution will be better, but I will need a lot more bits.

Until you decide upon a particular bit scaling, and analog signal gain the dynamic range and number of bits are not related.

Zaikesman...Correct. This is a multichannel system, and digital outputs are not available.

Shadorne...How many bits you need depends on the size of the bits

I think you will find that the quantization levels in D to A and A to D converters are fixed.

16-bit A/D conversion has 2^16 discrete numbers, or 65,536 quantization levels in the full-scale...so it has a granularity of 0.000015 or 0.0015 % of full-scale (full scale is like +/-2.5 Volts peak to peak) or roughly a quantization of around 0.03 milli-volts.

Even if you get more lights on, the quantization interval does not change, as it is tied to the full scale capabilities of the chip.

Note that the Behringer is a 24 bit ADC/DAC so we are talking about 16,777,216 quantization levels or signal granularity of 0.2 micro-volts (again a quantization granularity that is independent of which lights are lit up on the box)

=> So relax and simply stay well away from clipping if you have a studio grade 24 bit converter, as it means you have heaps and heaps of "digital" headroom to play with the digital signals using digital filters. Playing around with digital signals/filters (such as boosting one recorded channel immensely) is a good resaon to have the vast dynamic range of 24 bits so studios obvioulsy want that....but in general this capability is overkill for home play back of music. (Thankfully 24 bit DACs are really cheap so many of us have them anyway, whether they are really needed or not.)

Apparently, even the cutting edge of compressed digital audio realizes the importance of vinyl. The new Urge music downloading site has based its grand opening ad campaign around posters that read: "For those who really value music" (or something like that). The backround picture on this poster is a vinyl LP spinning on a TT with a tonearm on it. These posters are all over the NY subway system. One of the many ironies of this ad is that much of the target consumer for a site like Urge has never seen a TT in the flesh. Although I think that is changing. Even among the non-audiophile world, turntables are becomming hip with young people.

Bondmanp: The change to vinyl and turntables "becoming hip with young people" already occurred a long time ago now, but it was because of hip hop, not anything related to audiophile sound matters.