Capturing radio software?

When we capture the streaming radio on EAC, are we capturing the original digital info, or what your soundcard produces?

If the second, the quality is degraded, depending on the quality of your soundcard - meaning I should upgrade my soundcard to 192/24.

or is the captured signal the original digital info streamed?

If EAC doesn't do that, is there a way to capture the original digital info, without loss of quality? Hopefully in a wav file.

Thanks in advance...