Information about the ALAC audio format
ALAC is better than AAC, but do you really need to use it?
If you use Apple’s iTunes software to organize your digital music library, you probably already know that the default format it uses is AAC . If you also buy songs and albums from the iTunes Store, the files you download will also be in AAC (iTunes Plus format to be precise).
So what is the ALAC format option in iTunes?
It is short for Apple Lossless Audio Codec (or simply Apple Lossless), a format for storing music without losing any details. The audio is still compressed as AAC, but the big difference is that it’s the same as the original source. This lossless audio format is similar to other audio formats you may have heard of, such as FLAC.
The file extension used for ALAC is .m4a , the same as the default AAC format. If you see a list of songs on your computer’s hard drive, all with the same extension, this can be confusing. So unless you enable the “Type” column option in iTunes, you won’t visually know which ones have been encoded with ALAC or AAC. ( View Options > Show Columns > Type ).
Why use the ALAC format?
One of the main reasons for wanting to use the ALAC format is that audio quality is at the top of the list.
No loss of quality when ripping CDs If you want to keep the original audio CDs, ripping them with the ALAC option will give you a perfect copy of the disc.
Safe conversion to other formats As you probably know, converting from one lossy format to another reduces audio quality. However, if you use a lossless format like ALAC, you can convert to anything without losing any audio information.
Damaged Master CD Restoration stores your physical music collection (CDs) as ALAC files, giving you the option to recreate them if the masters are damaged or lost. You can simply burn an ALAC file to a recordable CD, which will give you an identical copy of the original backed up disc.
Disadvantages of using ALAC
Although superior to AAC in terms of audio quality, ALAC may not be necessary. Disadvantages of using it include:
Larger files Like other lossless codecs, ALAC-encoded audio produces larger file sizes than lossy formats. So you need more storage space than using AAC . Unless audio quality is important, the tradeoff probably isn’t worth it. If you just want to listen to music on standard devices like smartphones, then AAC is best to stick with.
Less hardware support There is less support for ALAC than popular lossy formats like AAC. If you only use Apple devices, this is not a problem as they all support it. However, if in the future you think you might use a different manufacturer’s portfolio of notebooks, ALAC may not be the best solution for you.
Will you hear the difference? If you’re going to be using standard hardware like a smartphone and basic headphones, you probably won’t notice the difference between AAC and ALAC. Although lossy formats like AAC discard audio data, decent bit rates (256 Kbps or higher) are usually good enough for most people.
