That is a bit unfair. LP can do up to 80db (13 bits) in extremis, more routinely you could expect 55 - 70 db ( 9 - 11) - this is fine most of the time but not for stuff like some classical music which can go from deafeningly loud to whisper quiet in the same movement.
My very first experience with CD was back in 1984 when I auditioned an early Marantz CD63 (Philips CD100) a modest 14 bit 2x oversampling box with a humble 90db snr and I got them to put on Solti's CSO Mahler 1 - the lack of noise on the opening bars of the 1st movement compared to my Rega Planar 3 figuratively took my breath away - that pretty much finished LP for me
After it goes below -54 dBFS it's irrelevant, classic music or any other music. To hear it (not to mention hear it loud enough to appreciate it) at that level you would have to increase the volume to such a ridiculous amount that as soon as a loud passage started you would be deafened.
-54 dBFS requires only 9-bits (You can add an extra bit for good measure, more room to dither, yada yada), so a 10-bit ADC / 10-bit DAC converter is transparent for music.
Virtually all recordings have less than 60 dB of dynamic range. It's easily measured in any good DAW on a track by track basis. Try it with the music you listen to that you consider has a higher dynamic range - you will be surprised! I am including audiophile 192/24 recordings in the mix by the way, so do mean
virtually all.
Updated with details on how you can perform the test yourself...
Anybody that thinks that more than a 10-bit sample depth matters needs to watch the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYTlN6wjcvQ starting from 45:48. Let
your own ears with your own (high end) equipment be the judge.
Actually, if you want to do this test with complete accuracy, you can download the original .wav file used for this test at:
http://ethanwiner.com/aes/bit_reduction.wav
I start hearing noise at around 18 seconds when playing the .wav file which equates to a 7-bit depth, when listening on Sennheiser HD650 headphones connected via a balanced cable to an OPPO HA-1 fed via asynchronous USB (i.e., I don't think anyone can call my system "low res") with the volume set quite loud in a very quiet room. Let me repeat, 7-bits is enough for this song!
Now if you want to do the test yourself, get the .wav file at the link I just posted, see at what second you can hear noise or any objectionable artifacts. Then play the youtube video (also linked above) starting at 46:18 for the number of seconds you played the .wav file. Then you can see from the video at what bit depth you heard the "bad audio." That my friends is the easiest way to convince yourself that 10-bits is plenty.
Updated again:
If you really want to go all the way, you can download the actual VST plug-in called
+decimate that was used in the instructional youtube video and try it with your own DAW and your own music. I would love to hear the results. In fact, I've done all of the research for you.
Here is a link to the latest version of the VST collection that includes +decimate:
http://www.soundhack.com/freeware/
You want to download the
Delay Trio / Freesound Bundle from the top left column on that page. The actual plug-in you're looking for from the set is +decimate and can be found under VST/Effect/Sound Hack/+decimate in your DAW after it is correctly located and installed in your DAW software. On windows when I install it, it installs itself in c:\program files\common files\VST2, so I just added that redirectoy to my DAW and refreshed the VST list making it available.
The funny thing is that I have some music high in transients that I thought could use some major (i.e., 24) bit depth and it turned out that 5-bits was enough! I am both flabbergasted and speechless at this point. How can anyone even consider high bit depth audio again after performing this test?
Happy listening! I am beginning to think that this post should be linked to from the top post in this thread for all of the audiophiles that venture into these (murky) waters to get permanently "circumcised" of their (high-end) purchasing habits.