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Dec 7, 2023 · The “best” audio format depends largely on your needs and priorities, as different formats offer varying balances of sound quality, file size, and compatibility. Each audio file format caters to specific types of listeners, as you’ll discover below.
- Becky Scarrott
- File formats and codecs at a glance. Want to cut straight to the chase? Here's a handy guide to all the file formats and the differences between them. If you want to know more, read on below for a more in-depth look at the differences in size, sound quality and compatibility.
- Compressed vs uncompressed audio files. First, let’s talk about the three categories all audio files can be grouped into – uncompressed, lossless and lossy.
- WAV vs AIFF: uncompressed audio file formats. WAV and AIFF are arguably the most popular uncompressed audio file formats, both based on PCM (Pulse Code Modulation), which is widely recognised as the most straightforward audio storage mechanism in the digital domain.
- ALAC vs FLAC vs WMA Lossless: lossless audio formats. Everyone loves a FLAC. A lossless file, the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is compressed to nearly half the size of an uncompressed WAV or AIFF of equivalent sample rate, but there should be no “loss” in terms of how it sounds.
- Lossy audio. This is a compression technique that does not decompress audio files to their original data amount. Lossy methods provide high degrees of digital compression, which results in smaller files.
- Lossless audio. This is a compression technique that decompresses audio files back to their original data amount. Lossless methods can provide high degrees of digital compression, but there is no loss in size or sound quality.
- Uncompressed audio. This is an audio file that has no compression applied to it. The sound in uncompressed audio files remains the same as when it was recorded.
- FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) FLAC delivers CD-quality audio in a file size smaller than an actual CD. It's also a non-proprietary, open-source codec that's great for software developers who want to use lossless audio.
May 25, 2024 · A file format used by lots of Windows users is WMA, or Windows Media Audio, which was created by Microsoft as an alternative to MP3 for computers running Windows. Its benefit over MP3 is that...
- Tom Bedford
Sep 24, 2024 · Want to ditch streaming and buy MP3s and FLAC files instead? Here are the top places to buy music you can keep forever.
Audio CDs and MP3s are both popular formats for listening to music, but they have some key differences. Audio CDs are physical discs that store music in uncompressed format, resulting in high-quality sound. They can be played on CD players, car stereos, and computers with CD drives.
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Nov 2, 2023 · Supported by most major devices, FLAC is the main competitor to MP3 when it comes to music - providing you with the full quality of your uncompressed audio at less than half of the file size. FLAC files can also provide a resolution of up to 32-bit, 96kHz - even better than CD quality.
