Why peaking near 0dBFS is unnecessary when mixing audio
Modern digital audio workstations can operate at 24 bit resolution and above, this provides a theoretical dynamic range of 144dB. This in practice is usually limited to around 120dB due to the limitations of the analog circuits that convert the audio to and from digital. The small analog operational amplifiers in the sound cards will produce a noise floor slightly above the digital noise floor. With this in mind it comes as a surprise that many people mix with their DAW meters peaking very close to the top of the scale.