24 bit & 32 bit float

[David Polich]

[...]It all ends up as mp3's or YouTube audio for most of the listening public these days anyway.

Yes, and I have very few audiophile customers!
But some of my works are played on high level PA system for dramatic shows, or dance shows, in medium size venues. Small amount of distortion, or noise, may be noticeable on very quiet parts of audio material.

Nope - the noise floor in any of those venues would far exceed any
audible distortion. You couldn't get those venues quiet enough to ever
hear it. The ambient noise level in venues like that would be at least
70 db.

The power amps and lighting rigs make noise all by themselves, and I've
never encountered a hum or noise-free large PA system anywhere. There's
always some line noise being broadcast.

[daniel.sneed]

I see your point, David, but I think it's a project and a musical material related thing.
With any "modern" music, at usual levels, no problem at all, of course.

But when I work on dramatic shows audio effects, things may be is quite different. Audience is sometimes extremely silent. Yes, sometimes it may be around here, in France. I'm talking about shows where actors use their natural voice, that is to say, no mike to bring them up.
The same DAW may deliver high level sounds effects or musics, and a few seconds latter very tiny sounds. In such a situation I DO NOT change any hardware mixer setting along the show. All is set, and fixed, within the DAW sequences. That leads sometime to extremely low level audio events. -30 to -50dB are currently used.
In such cases, I've experienced that DAW noise may become a concern.

And you're right, bringing a large PA system to near silence, has often proved to be a hard and time consuming task. Line transformers, power filters, proper grounding and, of course, lighting systems are often parts of this dark nightmare.