Fred, yes the Blu-ray discs contain audio tracks besides those using lossless compression. These are at a higher bit rate(640Kbps)than the DD tracks(448Kbps)on regular DVDs. It's been discussed here a couple times, but if you haven't studied it, the
Home Entertainment Magazine tests , blind and otherwise, done last year should be read. The bottom line was that the difference between the higher rate DD tracks and the HD tracks was so small as to be inaudible in most cases. So, if you want to go that way, don't worry about the audio being "downgraded" to a significant extent if neither your player nor your receiver can decode the HD formats.
