The dynamic range (the difference between the highest and the lowest amplitude that can be represented) is 98 dB (decibels) in a 16 bit system. Normally, sound cards use 16 bit resolution, and this is seldom a feature that the user can change. However, some professional level sound cards use 18, 20, 24 or 32 bit resolution.
The difference between the actual measured amplitude and its binary representation is called quantization error. If the quantization error is large, there will be an audible degradation of sonic quality. A harsh sound quality, or noise, will be added to the audio. The effect gets more prominent if the amplitude of the recorded signal is low. Therefore, care should be taken to digitize with the input signal as close as possible to the maximum level.
The input signal level in digital recording must never exceed 0 dBFS. If it does, clipping will occur, resulting in distortion. In this respect, digital recording is much more sensitive than analog recording, and there is much less room for error.