i never do 24 bit live.
What's the benefit of ripping to 24 bit files? Isn't it just wasting space?
A 16 bit dynamic range is entirely sufficient for capturing and playing back the full dynamic range of any LP. It's also sufficient for playing back any live recording we make. All the sounds we'd care to reproduce, ranging from audible stuff buried well below the noise floor up to the highest signal level will fit within a 16bit range in a WAV file.
The usefulness of recording a 24bit file instead of a 16 bit one is mostly in live recording scenarios which involve a wide dynamic range- music which gets very loud at some points, recorded in an environment which is very quiet at other points. That's because it allows for a somewhat wider tolerance in setting the recording levels. The highest level produced by the live performance is not always fully predictable or certain and the record levels can be set lower to be certain of avoiding the possibility of clipping.
It's important to understand that even though the file format may store 16bits or 24 bits of information, all the sound we want to reproduce will rarely fill more than 12 or 13 bits at most. If we set the recording levels correctly, in the resulting file there will always be numbers representing lots of random noise at the bottom and zeros representing unused range at the top. We just need to adjust the recording level to fit it comfortably in that range and a 24bit file format makes that easier by providing a lot of excess space. That excess will never be used otherwise. It's also important to understand that the finest ADCs on the planet are capable at best of encoding the equivalent of maybe 22bits or so of actual range, and then only if the the recording signal chain feeding it is capable of providing such a hugely wide range. With the equipment tapers use, we're doing really really well if our gear is capable of actually capturing the equivalent of about 18 or 19bits of range. 24bit file storage far exceeds the encoding capability of any ADC and the decoding capacity of any DAC.
Many of the inexpensive handheld "24bit capable" recorders used around here are not capable of recording the equivalent of even 16bits of actual range. At best our good recorders may capture 17 or 18, perhaps 19 bits worth of actual information which gets stored within the 24bit files they write to the memory card. I record 24bit files because that extra bit or two is worth it to me. I have no qualms with dithering that down to 16bits later after editing as I can fit everything comfortably within a 16bit file.
If ripping LPs, the signal level to be encoded is far more predictable than live music recording, so it's not difficult to set levels so that everything fits comfortably in the 16 bit file straight off, with less wasted file space.
None of what I wrote above has anything to do with a particular 'sound' of different equipment, signal chains, ADCs, etc. The only way to make decisions on that basis is to make recordings through each and critically compare them. An assumption that the "24bit' equipment or mode of operation will always sound better than the "16bit" equipment or mode of operation is flawed. One may sound better than the other for lots of other reasons, but the dynamic range of the music will most certainly fit within a 16bit file format.