FFMpeg/libav and SoX don’t output identical WAVs when decoding FLAC/WV, Moved from General Audio (TOS #6) Options

[2012]

Hello.

I noticed that the result of decoding (lossless) files to WAV is not bit-exact when using ffmpeg/avconv vs. sox.

The difference is very small but It doesn't take place only at the header of the file. xdelta tells me it takes place every 8388608 bytes.

Also, the filesize is different (e.g. 51525310 with avconv and 51525308 with sox).

The result is exactly the same if the source is FLAC or WavPack. So, this is not codec-specific.

Is there an explanation to this? Is one of the tools at fault or the difference is not in audio data?