[ Thanks to PhillC for this link. ]
“Lossless codec? Compression? Doesn’t compression
result in loss of detail? Not always. There are many lossy codecs,
both audio and video, that apply various compression techniques
that actually discard some of the original material, to obtain
smaller file sizes. The better the codec is at discarding items
that don’t impare the listening or viewing experience, the more
impressive the end result will be.“FLAC, being lossless, doesn’t discard any of the original
content, but still applies compression techniques. View this like
compressing a file with Gzip or Bzip perhaps. Smaller files are
achieved, but when de-compressed nothing has been lost in the
process. Perhaps think of it like folding a piece of paper. Fold it
in half once, and the end result is smaller. Keep folding to
produce smaller and smaller (or more highly compressed) paper
packages. Unfold the paper, and you still have the same original
piece of paper. Ignore fold lines and degradation over time! This
doesn’t happen in the world of bits and bytes.”