Recent 32-bit experience, and why I don't intend to go back to 24 bit:
After a nearly 4 year hiatus since the onset of Covid, I went back last week to recording a weekly chamber music series that has just started up again. I had not used any of my higher-end equipment since early 2020 and so knew I had to do some maintenance. I replaced lots of batteries and power bricks that had died or lost reliability, and went with my Zoom F6 with triple-redundancy powering (and extras on the side). My cables and stands were stored in a closet at the venue, so I brought a fresh set of XLR cables and some cable cleaning fluid. I relearned how to run the F6 (a little nervous not to have the redundant second SDHC card that the F8n has, but with a loose extra card along anyway) and set it for 32-recording alone, no 24 bit parallel so I wouldn't have to worry about levels. This immediately saved me from a heart attack when I found that the headphones stored at the venue were 1/4" plug but the F6 only has 1/8" output. Yak! But, hey, with 32 bit I could actually fly blind, and I had recorded enough piano solo in that hall to know how to setup without soundchecks, though I was not exactly happy about that (I arrived early enough that the lights in the room were not on, and I got through half my setup, from memory, in very very dim ambient illumination). I eventually found a 1/4" female to 1/8" male connector (and a second one turned up hours later), so could monitor the session. I was recording two stereo pairs: two omni mics on a Jecklin Disk over the piano tail and a new set of wide cardioids (DIN, sorta) centered. I monitored the Jecklin Disk set which was my usual main recording, the wide cardioids (Nevaton 59W-S) were experimental. I bought them just before Covid and had never used them in the field. The experiment was interesting, mainly I think because I did a bad thing. In seeking to make sure a signal was coming from the 59W mics on the F6 meters, I unplugged and replugged the Nevaton mics _without turning off phantom power_. Naughty naughty. All four tracks were recorded as individual stems, not stereo linked. When I got home and looked at the files in Wavelab, the omni tracks were perfect but the 59W had the right track at about the same raw levels as the omnis but the left almost invisible. Quick loudness check in the wavelab "Analysis" menu showed the left track was almost exactly 20 dB lower (the 59W mics do not have pads, and tests of the mics on a 24 bit Tascam recorder showed the mics were pretty closely matched; the F6 settings for both channels were identical). So I boosted the left track 20 dB, and ended up with a perfect stereo pair, no sign of any artifacts from system or background noise, which is exactly what 32-bit is supposed to do. I suspect that fiddling with the connections during setup, with phantom on, caused a transient that "fooled" the F6 A/D to record the left channel lower. Do the 32-bit A/D converters work in 20 dB jumps? Is this scenario possible or plausible?
Other things I forgot I needed: velcro cable ties, tape scissors for cutting tape to 1) replace velcro cable ties and 2) narrow the Shapeways printed Nevaton 59-S DIN mount so it is actually the right size to fit 59-S mics.
Both recordings came out great, in my opinion.
Jeff