Lossless encodings don't throw anything away that was present in the original source file; if you start with a recording chain that can store 200,000 samples pe

Lossless encodings don't throw anything away that was present in the original source file; if you start with a recording chain that can store 200,000 samples per second from an adequate microphone, you can resolve 100KHz - epsilon frequencies. Typically, though, the source files that pass through lossless encoding have previously been limited to 22KHz. Lossy encodings, on the other hand, all work on the basis of a model of perceptibility that throws away information deemed less perceptible.