| I'm assuming that we're talking about a straight translation from 32 bit to 24 bit with no processing being done. This being the case, wouldn't whether or not to use dither depend on the actual level of the signal?
If you haven't gone beyond the dynamic range of 24 bit fixed, the 24 bit mantissa of a 32 float number would equate to 24 fixed, therefore it would seem that you are adding unnecessary noise to the signal by dithering. OTOH if it exceeds this range, as Nika's paper points out, you are adding correlated noise during the translation by using dither. Not really a good thing, but a necessary "evil". |