Everything you need to know about audio files … compressed and uncompressed

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Everything you need to know about audio files … compressed and uncompressed

Regardless of whether you’re listening to MP3 files or high-definition audio, it’s time to find out exactly which file format is best for your needs.

As you organize your digital music collection, you may be impressed by the number of different audio file formats you have collected over the years. For this reason (and since a good review doesn’t hurt anyone) we’d like to deepen the discussion of the most common audio file formats, explain the differences and explain why you should be interested in learning more about them. Whether you’re listening to low quality MP3 files, slightly better AAC tracks, or high definition audio in FLAC or WAV, it’s time to find out exactly what you’re dealing with and which file format best suits your needs.

File formats and codecs

Below is a list of all common audio file formats and the differences between them.

-AAC (no high resolution): Apple’s alternative to MP3. It’s a compressed audio format, but it sounds better than MP3 and is used to download music from iTunes and stream via Apple Music.

-AIFF (high resolution): Apple’s alternative to WAV, but with better metadata support. It’s an uncompressed and lossless format, but it’s not very popular.

-DSD (High Resolution) – The uncompressed single bit format for super audio CDs. It is available in the 2.8 MHz, 5.6 MHz and 11.2 MHz variants, but due to its high-quality codec it is (currently) not suitable for streaming.

-FLAC (High Resolution) – This lossless compression format supports high-resolution sampling rates, takes up about half the WAV space, and stores metadata. It is license-free and is the preferred format for downloading and storing albums in high resolution or CD quality. The disadvantage is that it is not compatible with Apple (therefore it is not compatible with iTunes).

-MP3 (not high definition): Lossy, compressed format that guarantees small file sizes, but is far from the best possible audio quality. However, it is still very convenient for storing music on smartphones and other mobile devices and is widely used.

-MQA (High Resolution) – A lossless compression format with high resolution files for more efficient transmission. It is used for high-resolution streaming from Tidal Masters and other similar services.

-OGG (not high resolution): Sometimes you can find him by his full name, Ogg Vorbis. An open source and compressed alternative to MP3 and AAC that is not limited by patents. This format is used (at 320 kbit / s) to stream Spotify.

-WAV (High Resolution) – The standard format in which all audio CDs are encoded. Excellent sound quality and no compression, which means large files (especially for high-resolution files). However, metadata (album art, artist information, and song title) are hardly supported.

-WMA Lossless – An uncompressed embodiment of Windows Media Audio, but is no longer supported by smartphones or tablets.

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The 10 most common audio formats: which one to use?

Audio files are available in all types and sizes. And although we are all familiar with MP3, what do you think of AAC, FLAC, OGG or WMA? Why are there so many audio standards? Which are important and which to ignore?

It’s actually quite easy to find that all audio formats fall into three main categories. Once you know what the categories mean, you can simply choose a format within the category that best suits your needs.

Uncompressed audio formats

Uncompressed audio consists of actual sound waves that have been captured without further processing and converted into a digital format. As a result, uncompressed audio files are usually the most accurate, but take up a lot of space, about 34MB per minute for 96-bit and 96-bit stereo.

Audio file format: PCM

PCM stands for Pulse Code Modulation, a digital representation of analog audio signals. Analog tones exist as waveforms, and in order to convert a waveform into digital bits, the tone must be sampled and recorded at certain intervals (or pulses).

This digital audio format has a “sample rate” (how often a sample is taken) and a “bit depth” (how many bits are used to represent each sample). No compression is required. The digital recording is an almost exact representation of the analog sound.

PCM is the most common audio format used on CD and DVD. There is a PCM subtype called Linear Pulse Code Modulation, in which samples are taken at linear intervals. LPCM is the most common form of PCM, so the two terms are almost interchangeable at this point.

Audio file format: WAV

WAV stands for Waveform Audio File Format (at some point also called Audio for Windows, but no longer). It is a standard developed by Microsoft and IBM in 1991.

Many people believe that all WAV files are uncompressed audio files, but that’s not exactly true. WAV is actually a Windows container for various audio formats. This means that a WAV file may contain compressed audio, but this is rarely used.

Most WAV files contain uncompressed audio in PCM format. The WAV file is just a container for PCM encoding, so it is more suitable for use on Windows systems. However, Mac systems can generally open WAV files with ease.

Audio file format: AIFF

AIFF stands for Audio Interchange File Format. Similar to how Microsoft and IBM developed WAV for Windows, AIFF is a format developed by Apple for Mac systems in 1988.

Similar to WAV files, AIFF files can contain several types of audio formats. For example, there is a compressed version called AIFF-C and another version called Apple Loops that is used by GarageBand and Logic Audio. Both use the same AIFF extension.

Most AIFF files contain uncompressed audio in PCM format. The AIFF file is just a container for PCM encoding, making it more suitable for use on Mac systems. However, Windows systems can generally open AIFF files with ease.

Lossy compression audio formats.

Lossy compression occurs when some data is lost during the compression process. Compression is important because uncompressed audio takes up a lot of space.

In other words, lossy compression means that the sound quality and fidelity for smaller files are affected. If you are hurt, you will hear artifacts and other oddities in the audio. But if done correctly, you won’t feel the difference.

Audio file format: MP3

MP3 stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3. It was released in 1993 and is becoming increasingly popular. It is the world’s most popular audio format for music files. There is a reason why we had “MP3 players” but no “OGG players”!

The main purpose of MP3 is in three ways: 1) removing all audio that is out of the normal human hearing range, and 2) reducing the quality of inaudible sounds, then 3) compressing all the other audio as efficiently as possible.

Almost every digital device in the world with audio playback can read and play MP3 files, be it PC, Mac, Android, iPhone, Smart TV or anything else. If you need a universal device, MP3 will never disappoint you.

Note: MP3 is not the same as MP4!

Audio file format: AAC

AAC stands for Advanced Audio Coding. It was developed in 1997 as the successor to MP3 and although it has become popular as a format to be used, it has never surpassed MP3 as the most popular.

The compression algorithm used by AAC is much more advanced and technical than MP3. So if you compare the same recording in MP3 and AAC format with the same bit rates, the AAC generally has better audio quality.

Although MP3 is a more popular format, AAC is still widely used today. In fact, this is the standard audio compression method used by YouTube, Android, iOS, iTunes, later Nintendo laptops, and later PlayStation.

Audio file format: OGG (Vorbis)

OGG represents nothing. In fact, it’s not even a compression format. OGG is a multimedia container that can contain all types of compression formats. However, Vorbis files are most commonly used. Therefore, these audio files are called Ogg Vorbis files.

Vorbis was first released in 2000 and is growing in popularity for two reasons: 1) it conforms to the principles of open source software and 2) it works significantly better than most other lossy compression formats (ie) this results in a smaller file size for an equivalent sound quality.

MP3 and AAC are so strong that OGG struggles to get into the spotlight – not many devices support them natively, but they do improve over time. It is currently used primarily by supporters of hardcore open source software.

Audio file format: WMA (lossy)

WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. It was first published in 1999 and has gone through several developments since then, always keeping the same name and WMA extension. It is a proprietary format created by Microsoft.

Similar to AAC and OGG, WMA should fix some of the errors in the MP3 compression method, and it turns out that WMA’s approach to compression is very similar to that of AAC and OGG. Yes, in terms of the quality of objective compression, WMA is really better than MP3.

However, since WMA is proprietary, it is not supported by many devices and platforms. In addition, it offers no real advantage over AAC or OGG. If MP3 is not good enough, it is only more practical to use one instead of WMA.

Audio formats with lossless compression.

The opposite lossy compression is lossless compression, in which the size of an audio file is reduced without loss of data between the source audio file and the compressed audio file.

The disadvantage is that lossless compressed audio files are larger than lossy compressed audio files, up to 2 times 5 times larger for the same source file.

Audio file format: FLAC

FLAC is an abbreviation for Free Lossless Audio Codec. Maybe a bit on the nose, but it has quickly become one of the most popular lossless formats since its launch in 2001.

The good news is that FLAC can compress an original source file by up to 60 percent without losing a single bit of data. What’s even better is that FLAC is a free, open source audio file format, so there are no intellectual property restrictions.

FLAC is compatible with most major programs and devices and is the primary alternative to MP3 for music. You basically get the full quality of uncompressed audio with half the file size. That is why many see FLAC as the best audio format.

Audio file format: ALAC

ALAC stands for Apple Lossless Audio Codec. It was developed and published as a proprietary format in 2004, but became open source and copyright-free in 2011. ALAC is sometimes referred to as Apple Lossless.

While ALAC is good, it is somewhat less efficient than FLAC in terms of compression. However, Apple users cannot choose between the two, as iTunes and iOS offer native support for ALAC and no support for FLAC.

Audio file format: WMA (lossless)

WMA stands for Windows Media Audio. We already discussed this in the lossy compression section, but we explained this here because there is a lossless alternative called WMA Lossless that uses the same extension. Confused, I know.

Compared to FLAC and ALAC, WMA Lossless is the worst compression efficiency, but not much. Since it is a proprietary format, it is not suitable for open source software enthusiasts, but is natively supported on Windows and Mac systems.

Better audio formats

You have decided to digitize the music tracks in your audio CD collection by transferring everything to your computer, and in doing so you have begun to evaluate the possibility of converting them to a more pleasant format for you. However, having little experience in this regard, you would like to receive some advice on the subject so that you can make the best decision. How to say Things are exactly this way and would you like to know if I can help you by indicating what are the best audio formats? Of course yes, that was exactly what he intended to do.

If you allow me a few minutes of your free time, I can actually tell you, by thread and by sign, what are the most popular audio formats in circulation, their strengths and weaknesses and for what uses they may be more or less convenient to contact . condition to opt for those that you think may actually be right for you. To complete the information and to give you an even more complete description of the matter, at the end of the article it will also be my concern to indicate what tools you can use to perform various conversion operations. You will see that after reading this guide, you will no longer have any doubts about what to do.

So? How about putting the talk aside and finally getting to the heart of the matter? You? Brilliant! Therefore, I suggest not wasting any more time and immediately start focusing on the topic. Get comfortable in front of your trusted computer and read everything below. I am sure you can say that you are happy and satisfied with what you have learned. I wish you, as always, happy reading.

The most used audio formats

As you can imagine, when we talk about digital formats in the field of sound, the range is wide. When choosing the one that best suits our needs, we need to think about several questions. To do this, the first thing to do is to know the most used audio formats.

We start by clarifying the concepts of bit depth and sample rate, which are essential for understanding how audio formats work. These are two measurements that indicate the quality of a digital audio file.

When we read the specifications for audio formats and find, for example, 32 bit / 192 kHz and 24 bit / 96 kHz, these figures refer to “bit depth” and “sampling frequency”, respectively. They tell us the amount of information transmitted by the different formats and the quality of the sound. The more times a device reads samples, the higher the quality.

Audio formats

-MP3: These files weigh very little for any device to read. The downside is that the quality of compression is sacrificed.
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-WAV (Waveform Audio File Format): These are higher resolution files than MP3, an audio track which is coded with what is called Pulse Code Modulation (PCM). Analog audio tracks are encoded and converted to digital so that they can have sample rates and bit depth.

-AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format): it is very similar to WAV and also uses PCM to encode analog audio tracks and present them in digital format. Indeed, AIFF and WAV files are more or less interchangeable.
In short, when we talk about a file in WAV or AIFF audio format, we are talking about a good quality piece of sound.

What audio formats are there? All you need to know

FLAC, WAV, AIFF, DSD … these are just some of the initials that you can find when you are looking for a digital format. They are also accompanied by technical data such as sample rates and bit depth. So many terms can leave you more misplaced than a chicken at a dance. And it is that unless you are an expert in digital sound, the process to choose the audio format that best suits your needs can be a mess. But if they explain it to you, the topic is relatively simple. That is why at Culturasonora we have prepared a complete guide for you on the different audio formats most used. This will prevent any acronym from taking you on the dark side.

What are Bit Depth and Sample Rate?

These two concepts are basic. To understand how audio formats work you need to know what Bit Depth and Sample Rate are. These are two measures that indicate the quality of a digital audio file. We are going to try to summarize it so that you keep the general idea

samplerate

When you read the specifications of the audio formats you come across a couple of figures. For example: 32-bit / 192kHz or 24-bit / 96kHz. These numbers indicate the bit depth and the sample rate. These references tell us how much information the different formats transmit and the quality of the sound. For example, the audio we hear on a regular CD, or on a Spotify stream, is 16bit / 44.1kHz. Samples are always measured in Hertz (or hertz) and bit depth in Bits.

Softwares or hardwares usually do not work with a continuous flow of information, but usually use pieces, samples or samples to effectively manage the data that is transmitted. The sample rate is the number of samples per second that are obtained from a recording. The higher the number of times a device plays samples, the higher the sound quality. Each of these extracts or samples has a certain amount of information, which is the bit depth, or bit depth.

So that you understand it better we are going to make a somewhat beastly analogy, which is not entirely true, but that will help you get the sense of all this. Which is what interests us. If you control a bit of photography and image you will get it right away: the sample rate would be something similar to the frames or frames per second of a video, and the bit rate would be similar to the pixels of a photograph. The higher the bit depth number, the more information each sample will have. The more pixels an image has, the higher resolution each frame of a video will have. The more frames per second a movie has, the better definition. In short: the higher the number of the Bit Depth and the Sample Rate, the higher the quality of the audio file. Heard cooking?

Audio formats: MP3 vs WAV vs AIFF

What is the MP3 format?

If you’re interested in getting some audio fidelity and decent sound from your files, you’ll want to avoid this format. Why? Because basically an MP3 is a file that sacrifices audio quality to minimize size. They weigh very little for any device to read. The negative? Compressing these files provides poor, almost lifeless sound. Today, hardly anyone uses this format seriously. Even its creators recently ended the license by declaring it dead. But surely from time to time you come across a zombie file with this format.

What is WAV format?

WAVs (Waveform Audio File Format) are just as common but better for anyone who wants a decent audio format. They are higher resolution files than MP3s. A WAV is an audio piece that is encoded with something known as Pulse Code Modulation (PCM), a medium that encodes analog audio pieces and converts them to digital so they can have the Sample rate and Bit Depth of the that we have already talked about previously.

What is the AIFF format?

The AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) audio format is very similar to WAV in that it also uses PCM to encode analog audio pieces and present them in digital format. This format was born as a response from Apple to Microsoft’s WAV, and at the beginning it could only work on MAC computers. Currently AIFF and WAV are more or less interchangeable.
In summary…
To close this topic, we will tell you that if you have a file in WAV or AIFF audio formats, you will hear a piece of sound of good quality. Normally these formats are used in files that we reproduce through our services, such as the iTunes music library. We will not see them in online streaming services, which tend to use special types of files.

THE BEST AUDIO FORMAT

Sound as well as the image is a fundamental piece in an audiovisual production.

If you had to choose between these two extreme situations with which one you would stay.

A good image resolution, but with a sound of poor quality.
Poor image quality, but with a clear and defined sound.
The ideal is to have a good balance of quality between image and sound.

An audio format is a multimedia container that saves data an audio file.

Each of these has its own characteristics and capabilities to be able to be reproduced in one or another system.

They have a series of properties that greatly influence the quality of the file, including the speed or frequency of sampling and the bit depth of information.

AUDIO FORMATS ACCORDING TO ITS QUALITY

The best way to classify the large number of audio formats that exist, is depending on whether they have quality loss or not when compared to the original source of Sound.

Depending on this, we have:

Audio files without loss of compressed and uncompressed.
Files with loss of quality.

UNCOMPRESSED AUDIO FORMATS

These files contain the audio in the highest original recording quality even when it is processed and stored on a computer.

The main drawback is that they are relatively large, which means storing less audio files on a hard drive.

Two examples of uncompressed formats are WAV and AIFF.

The .WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) property of IBM and Microsoft is relatively similar to the AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) co-developed by Apple Inc.

Both formats can be used in both operating systems.

They are very similar, the difference is that AIFF files allow metadata to be stored inside, that is, additional information such as:

Artist name.
Cover of the disk.
Copyright.
Different notes.
Not being compressed, they take up too much space, but without a doubt to edit the sound is the most successful option.

AUDIO FORMATS COMPRESSED WITHOUT LOSS

These types of formats achieve thanks to a series of algorithms smaller files without losing quality.

HOW CAN THEY COMPRESS WITHOUT LOSING QUALITY?

Uncompressed formats encode both the sound of a recording and the silences, a few seconds of sound from an audio file will weigh the same as the same seconds of silence.

These types of formats compress the file making the silence occupy almost no size.

Among these formats we have the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) which is the most popular, created by Windows, the ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) that was created by Apple Inc. and the APE format of Monkey’s Audio.

The three formats are very similar, the fundamental difference will be in its compatibility with the different players.

The FLAC file is the most popular because it is compatible with Windows and macOS, the ALAC created by Apple Inc is very exclusive and practically only works if we play it on iTunes.

Finally, the APE, a format only available in Windows that manages to compress more than the FLAC and the ALAC, but has the disadvantage that it is only compatible with a small number of players.

AUDIO FORMATS COMPRESSED WITH LOSS

Finally, we have compressed formats with loss of quality where you get a file that occupies less space by discarding some frequencies in the sound, usually parts of the audio that are inaudible to the human ear.

Among these formats we have the popular MP3, AAC, OGG and MP2 among others.

The MP3 file (MPEG Audio Layer III) is the standard format for sharing music on the network and the most popular of all since it is compatible with virtually all music players, making this the first option to choose between sounds at a loss.

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is similar to MP3, although a little more efficient, which means that files take up less space and have the same sound quality as MP3. It is a format widely used in iTunes and YouTube.

OGG (Vorbis) is a very popular open source compressed format in the spotify music application.

The MP2 is still used especially in radio and television transmissions, but it can be said that in other areas it has already been completely replaced by the MP3 that achieves greater compression with the same quality.

DIGITAL AUDIO FORMATS

Currently, thanks to digital audio formats, we can store and listen to our music on numerous devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, computers and music players.

What are digital audio formats?

Digital audio formats are basically containers. And the differences between them are fundamentally in:

Whether or not they are compressed.
If they are compressed, in the quality of compression.
The type of labeling they can support.
Digital audio formats

MP3

It is the best known, popular and most used. They are known by their extension “.mp3”.

It was developed by Moving Picture Experts Group, to be part of the well-known MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 standards.

Its fundamental characteristic lies in the fact that the technology behind it compresses the sound sequence, resulting in a really small file, which normally occupies half of the original file. To achieve this, it is necessary to lose certain sounds, which supposedly cannot be heard by the human ear.

Audio formats

WAV

Developed by the companies Microsoft and IBM, this format, whose name comes from the acronym WAVE (Waveform Aujdio File Format), is currently one of the audio formats that have no compression in the data, so they have excellent quality.

They are known for their “.wav” extension.

On the other hand, this format has the particularity that it includes support for almost all current audio codecs. This makes the WAV one of the most used formats in the field of professional sound, since the sound is captured with parameters of 44100 Hz and at 16 bits, the same quality can be obtained as on a CD.

On the contrary, one of the disadvantages of this format is that it has a limitation in recording, since it can only capture a maximum of 6.6 hours at maximum quality in the same file.

Audio formats

AIFF

The AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) format is very similar to WAV. It was born as an answer from Apple to the Microsoft WAV, being initially only compatible with MAC computers. Currently it can also be used on Windows.

Due to its characteristics, AIFF, together with FLAC and WAV, are usually the most used formats in the professional field of audio.

Wma

The WMA (Windows Media Audio) format is a format of music files created by Microsoft.

One of its main features is that those files that have been compressed in WMA format occupy less space than MP3s, which also means reducing their quality. Therefore, it is a lossy audio compression format.

OGG

OGG audio formats are compressed audio files, which means that they have a size that allows them to be transmitted via WIFI, but at the same time avoid the damage that is usually generated in the compression process.

For example, Spotify uses these OGG formats.

Audio formats

OPUS

Opus is a new codec that use the Ogg container. It was developed by the same creators of FLAC, with the help of Mozilla and Skype.

This new format stands out for its low latency, being ideal for online audio transmissions.

FLAC

When we talk about the FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) format, we are referring to an audio compression free codec without loss of quality.

Emerged within the community responsible for the OGG project, FLAC has become one of the strongest competitors of the WAV format, due to its advantages in terms of its sound quality.

Its objective is to reduce the size of the original file, eliminating data that are usually known as “waste”, without causing loss of quality.

This is the format used by the Tidal platform, the best service for high quality audio transmissions.

Audio formats

A THE C

The Alac (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) format is basically Apple’s alternative to FLAC. It is the format used by Itunes and for Apple Music broadcasts.

The most used audio formats

As you can imagine, when we talk about digital formats in the field of sound, the range is wide. When choosing the one that best suits our needs we have to think about several issues. To do this, the first thing is to know the most used audio formats.

CPA Online sound postproduction course We begin by clarifying the concepts of Bit Depth and the Sample Rate, fundamental to understand how audio formats work. These are two measures that indicate the quality of a digital audio file.

When we read the specifications of the audio formats and we find, for example, 32-bit / 192kHz and 24-bit / 96kHz, these figures refer to the “bit depth” and the “sample rate” respectively. They tell us how much information the different formats transmit and the sound quality. The higher the number of times a device plays the samples, the higher the quality.

Audio formats

MP3: these files weigh very little for any device to read. The negative part is that the quality of the compression pro is sacrificed.
CPA Online sound postproduction course

WAV (Waveform Audio File Format): are higher resolution files than MP3s, a piece of audio that is encoded with what is known as Pulse Code Modulation (PCM). The analog audio pieces are encoded and converted into digital so that they can have the Sample rate and the Bit Depth.
AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format): It is very similar to WAV and also uses the PCM to encode analog audio parts and present them in digital format. In fact, the AIFF and WAV files are more or less interchangeable.
In short, when we talk about a file in WAV or AIFF audio format we talk about a piece of sound of good quality.

Most popular audio formats

There is a huge amount of audio formats. The most common are formats such as MP3 (MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) and WAV. Usually, the type of format corresponds to the file extension (the letters of the file name after the period, for example .mp3, .wav, .ogg, .wma).

A codec is an algorithm for encoding and compressing data in an audio format. Some file types are assigned a specific codec. For example, the MP3 format always uses the MPEG Layer-3 codec, while the MP4 format can use a range of different codecs.

Many times, the notions of codec and format are used as interchangeable. Especially when a format always uses a single codec. However, it is necessary to understand the difference between a format and a codec. In simple terms, a format can be compared to a container in which a sound or a video signal that uses a particular codec can be stored.

Some formats, such as MP4 or FLV, can store both audio and video sequences.

If you don’t know what program you should use to open one format or another audio, we recommend that you use our audio converter. It is compatible with almost all existing formats.

Depending on the type of compression, two types of codecs can be distinguished:

Lossless Codecs

This group of formats records and compresses a sound in such a way that it allows the preservation of its exact original quality when decoded.

The most common lossless coding formats are:

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec – Audio codec, lossless and free),
APE (Monkey’s Audio – Mono Audio),
ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec – Audio codec, lossless Apple).

Loss Codecs

When compressed with loss, a sound undergoes some modification. For example, compression cuts the sound frequencies that are inaudible to the human ear. When decoded, the file will be different from the original in terms of the information stored in it, but it sounds almost the same.

Some of the most common lossy formats are:

MP3
Wma
OGG
AAC

WAV is one of the first audio formats. It is mainly used to store uncompressed audio tracks (PCM) that are identical to audio CDs in terms of quality. On average, a minute of WAV format sound requires about 10 megabytes of memory. CDs are usually digitized in WAV format and then can be converted to MP3 with an audio converter.

MP3 (MPEG Layer-3) is the most widespread sound format in the world. MP3, like many of the other lossy formats, compresses the file size by reducing sounds inaudible to the human ear. Currently, MP3 is not the best format in terms of file size for sound quality, but since it is the most widespread and compatible with most devices, many people prefer to save their files in this format.

WMA (Windows Media Audio) is a format owned by Microsoft Corporation. It was initially introduced as the substitute for the MP3 format, with the highest compression characteristics. However, this fact has been compromised by some independent tests. In addition, the WMA format is compatible with data protection through DRM.

OGG is an open format that supports audio coding by several codecs. The Vorbis codec is the most commonly used in OGG. The quality of compression can be compared to the MP3 format, but it is less widespread in terms of compatibility with various audio players and devices.

AAC is a patented audio format system that has higher capabilities (number of channels, frequency of discretion) compared to the MP3 format. Usually, it achieves better sound quality with the same file size. AAC is currently one of the loss-coding algorithms that offers the highest quality. A file encoded with this format can have the following extensions: .aac, .mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .m4p, .m4r.

FLAC is a common lossless format. It does not modify the audio sequence and the sound encoded with this format is identical to the original. It is frequently used to reproduce sound in high-end audio systems. Its playback compatibility on devices and players is limited, therefore, if desired, it often becomes other formats before listening to it on a player.