What is the M4A format?
The M4A format is an extension attached to audio files, just like MP3. .m4a is compressed by the AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) standard, but AAC is based on the MPEG4 format. In the MPEG4 format that stores audio and video data, .m4a only records the audio data.
As part of the MPEG-4 standard, there are differences between MP4 and M4A. For convenience, iTunes separates M4A and MP4. M4A is a file format that stores audio only, and MP4 is a format that contains video and audio data.
So what are the advantages and disadvantages of files in M4A format?
merit:
Voice quality is lossless (lossless). The capacity is also small.
It is not protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM), so you have more freedom to edit and transfer.
If you rewrite the file extension from M4A to M4R in iTunes, you can set it as iPhone ringtone as is.
Demerit:
Other manufacturers can’t handle it
To play M4A files
You can play it on Apple devices like iPhone and iPod. It can also be played on iTunes, Quicktime, and Windows Media Player.
If you use professional conversion software to convert M4A format files into highly versatile MP3 format files, you can also play them on general players.
Difference between M4A and MP3
MP3s are more versatile. In terms of sound quality, the later m4a is said to be technically superior, but there won’t be much of a difference at 128kbps or higher, which is used for musical purposes. Also, mp3 is not good at low bit rates of 100 kbps or less and the sound quality deteriorates a lot, so m4a is better when using such low bit rates. For users of Apple and iTunes products, generally speaking, the color coding of “mp3 that emphasizes versatility and m4a that emphasizes sound quality” is common.
M4A files have a higher compression ratio than MP3 files and sound better than MP3 files when encoded at the same bit rate. In terms of file size, M4A is often believed to have superior sound quality than MP3 when encoded at the same bit rate.
For example, for equivalent sound quality, M4A has a 192-bit rate and MP3 has a 256-bit rate.
How to Convert M4A to MP3
With Mp4GaIN the xconversionj from m4a to mp3 or from mp3 to m4a is very simple, really you only need to load the mp3 or m4a and choose the output format, which can not only be m4a or mp3, but flac, ogg and many others more.
