WAV vs AIFF vs FLAC
Reply #1 – 2006-07-08 09:20:27
First, WAV and AIFF are almost exactly the same thing. They are both containers for RAW PCM audio. The only difference is that WAV originally was a Microsoft / IBM standard and AIFF originaly was an Apple standard. They both will preserve the resolution of the CD PCM audio perfectly and untouched. The downside is that the size of the files will be exactly the same as it was on the CD and thus very large (about 10MB per minute of CD audio). FLAC and Apple Lossless are a little different. As lossless codecs, they still preserve the PCM perfectly, but they also use compression algorithims that, while still preserving perfect fedelity of the audio, will cut the file sizes down 30% to 60% depending on the audio, codec, and compression levels. These files can also be decoded to re-produce the original WAV or AIFF file again. Use these if you want to conserve a little space. It really doesn't matter which choice you make here: They all have absolutely no loss in fedelity whatsoever. It depends on if you want to conserve some space by using a lossless codec or not. Just make sure your programs and players are compatible with whaever format you choose, and even if they're not, dont sweat it- you can easily incode between all of these fomats without worry about loss of sound quality, just don't try the same trick with lossy codecs like MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, ect.