[rexkramer]

I have a newbie question about “lossless“ audio file types.  For example, how can Flac at 16/96, Flac at 24/96 and Flac at 24/182 all be lossless?   I assume that if you are copying a digital master you couldn't drop below that master’s specs and be lossless, but how about an analog master?  Does it come down to a matter of opinion on what sampling rate/bit depth there is no audible benefit exceeding?

[macnoob]

"Lossless" refers only to the digital file. It means that when the digital file is compressed and decompressed that there is no loss of digital data in that process. It doesn't speak to the quality of conversion from analogue to digital.

In your example, in all three cases the encoding scheme is "FLAC" which is lossless as compared to, say, MP3 which is lossy - you can never get back the original signal from an MP3.

16/96, 24/96, 24/182 all refer to the original conversion from analogue to digital. I could certainly perform a 24/182 A/D conversion then lossy-encode it as an MP3 - I'd never get my original 24/182 signal back.