WAV vs AIFF: uncompressed audio file formats
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Essentially, an uncompressed track is a reproduction of the original audio file, where real-world signals are transformed into digital audio.Ī lossless track is compressed to a smaller file size for better practicality and efficiency but shouldn't impact sound quality, whereas lossy tracks are the smallest and therefore easiest to store and download – but in order for that to be possible have to discard some audio information in the compression process. If no compression algorithm (or codec) has been used to compress the audio within your file, two things happen: zero loss in sound quality and, soon enough, a “startup disk full” warning on your laptop. Which falls into which category comes down to how compressed the data is (if at all) and, as a result, how much quality or “loss” you’ll experience as a listener. Hi-res music streaming services compared : which should you sign up for?įirst, let’s talk about the three categories all audio files can be grouped into – uncompressed, lossless and lossy.
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Best music streaming services 2022 : free streams to hi-res audio.WMA Lossless (hi-res): A lossless incarnation of Windows Media Audio, but no longer well-supported by smartphones or tablets. It has poor metadata support (that is, album artwork, artist and song title information). Great sound quality but it's uncompressed, meaning huge file sizes (especially for hi-res files). WAV (hi-res): The standard format in which all CDs are encoded. The file format used (at 320kbps) in Spotify streaming. A lossy, open-source alternative to MP3 and AAC, unrestricted by patents.
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OGG (not hi-res): Sometimes called by its full name, Ogg Vorbis. MQA (hi-res): A lossless compression format that packages hi-res files for more efficient streaming. Convenient for storing music on phones and iPods. MP3 (not hi-res): Popular, lossy compressed format ensures small file size but is far from the best sound quality. The downside is that it’s not supported by Apple (so not compatible with Apple Music). It's royalty-free and is considered the preferred format for downloading and storing hi-res albums. It comes in 2.8MHz, 5.6MHz and 11.2MHz varieties but, as it's high quality and uncompressed, is (mostly) impractical for streaming.įLAC (hi-res): This lossless compression format supports hi-res sample rates, takes up about half the space of WAV, and stores metadata. It is lossless and uncompressed (so big file sizes) but not hugely popular.ĭSD (hi-res): The single-bit format used for Super Audio CDs. In addition to AAC, the entire Apple Music catalogue is also encoded using ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) in resolutions between 16-bit/44.1 kHz (CD quality) and 24-bit/192 kHz.ĪIFF (hi-res): Apple's alternative to WAV, with better metadata support. ALAC (hi-res): Apple has also developed its own lossless audio compression technology.
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