16bit vs 24bit output with 16 bit music

Hi all,


So seems as if I have missed or forgotten something somewhere along the lines.


So basically most of the music I am sure majority of us listen to is 16 bit. I play all my music from my PC which is connected to my AVR via HDMI - so all the processing is done via the AVR.
I have always set my audio output in Windows to 24 bit and often 192Khz as it is the highest and my AVR supports it. Although music is 16 bit and 44.1Khz or 48Khz.




Now is there actually any benefit in doing this? Having the audio output set to anything greater than 16bit and 48Khz considering none (well, as good as none) of my music is of any greater quality?




What actually for me thinking about this is my car sound - my headunit died so I purchased a DSP (Audison Bit One) and decided to play music off my Windows tablet which only supports 16bit 48Khz and the USB to Optical converter I was looking at getting (Behringer UCA 202) also only supports 16 bit audio.


The DSP supports 24bit / 96Khz. What is the actual benefit is having audio set to 24bit output in Windows if the source (FLAC or MP3 or CD) which is being played is only in 16bit?


Thanks,
Psy