- The number of bits being used to represent the amplitude dimension, the number of stacked bins. For the CD or mini-DV this number is 16 bits of binary (0 or 1) information, or about 65,000 bins. This yields a dynamic range of about 96 dB. The more bits the finer the measurement of a signal and its fluctuations.
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The degree of precision to which the audio can be recorded. It has some similarities with video Resolution.
Below is an illustration of the bins analogy, in case the description just doesn't do it for you. You can see that more bins (i.e., more bits) enable the digital representation to more accurately resemble the curve of the original analog wave. This is kind of the same concept as more pixels more accurately displaying an image.
http://rtf318.pbwiki.com/f/Bins%20Analogy%20for%20quantizing%20and%20sound%20resolution.bmp
