[Asmodian]

Originally Posted by Nevilne

http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
http://xiph.org/video/vid2.shtml

This question is only in the context of 24-bit audio with all 8 LSBs always containing 0. This is relevant to eac3to's automatic conversion to 16-bit FLAC (instead of using 24-bit FLAC) if there was never a single 1 in the 8 LSBs of the nominally 24-bit audio. Those links are discussing normal 24-bit where the LSBs sometimes contain 1s.

I am sure there is no real 24-bit audio where all LSBs are 0, it must be 16-bit padded to 24, but if there was?

Originally Posted by raffriff42

No, a DAC adds a small amount of noise, called Dither aka Noise Shaping. More dither is needed for a lower-precision digital format. Increasing "precision" by adding zeros fools the DAC into not adding enough dither, which may result in digital harshness on the output (albeit at a very low level). Decreasing precision by truncating, without dither, has the same problem.
http://www.digido.com/articles-and-d...16-dither.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dither#Digital_audio

Again, that link is not discussing the situation as discussed (I think?). I don't think dithering is relevant when there is no error, is it? What do you dither if absolutely all LSBs are 0?