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Music & Audio
Audio
Audiophile
What is the best audio codec for music
6
Options
Considered
4
User
Recs.
Jun 5, 2022
Last
Updated
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6
Options
Considered
Best audio codec for music
Price
Last Updated
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Advanced Audio Coding (m4a)
-
Jun 5, 2022
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Free Lossless Audio Codec
FOSS
Jun 5, 2022
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LPCM WAV
-
Jun 5, 2022
--
Ogg Vorbis
FOSS
Jun 5, 2022
--
Opus
FOSS
Jun 5, 2022
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--
Advanced Audio Coding (m4a)
My Rec
ommendation
for
Advanced Audio Coding (m4a)
My Recommendation for
Advanced Audio Coding (m4a)
All
3
Pros
1
Cons
2
Top
Pro
•••
Efficient compression
Its MDCT-only compression algorithm makes it very efficient, retaining more data than MP3 at the same bitrate.
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Top
Con
•••
Lossy
Loses audio data through compression.
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Top
Con
•••
Not free
An open standard, but licensing fees apply.
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Hide
See All
Recommend
1
--
Free Lossless Audio Codec
My Rec
ommendation
for
Free Lossless Audio Codec
My Recommendation for
Free Lossless Audio Codec
All
3
Pros
2
Cons
1
Top
Pro
•••
FOSS
The FLAC format is free to use and fully open source.
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Top
Con
•••
Compatibility
Not (yet) compatible with many music player devices, primarily older ones.
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Top
Pro
•••
Lossless
Retains all of the original audio data.
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Hide
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FOSS
Recommend
1
--
LPCM WAV
My Rec
ommendation
for
LPCM WAV
My Recommendation for
LPCM WAV
All
4
Pros
2
Cons
2
Top
Pro
•••
Lossless
Being uncompressed, WAV files are sure to keep all of the original audio data.
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Top
Con
•••
Proprietary
WAV is developed by IBM and Microsoft and released under a proprietary license.
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Top
Pro
•••
Compatibility
Being a very old codec, its compatibility is widespread.
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Top
Con
•••
Uncompressed
WAV is uncompressed Linear PCM audio, which would take up a significant amount of disk space and is not very efficient (no size difference between a minute of audio and a minute of silence).
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Hide
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Recommend
1
--
Ogg Vorbis
My Rec
ommendation
for
Ogg Vorbis
My Recommendation for
Ogg Vorbis
Hide
FOSS
Recommend
--
Opus
My Rec
ommendation
for
Opus
My Recommendation for
Opus
Hide
FOSS
Recommend
--
MP3
My Rec
ommendation
for
MP3
My Recommendation for
MP3
All
4
Pros
1
Cons
3
Top
Pro
•••
Universal
Being a mature format, its compatibility is universal and its use is widespread.
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Top
Con
•••
Bitrate cap
According to its ISO standards, MP3 is not to be encoded at over 320kbps bitrate.
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Top
Con
•••
Lossy
Loses (a lot of) audio data to compression.
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Top
Con
•••
Inefficient compression
Its compression algorithms lacks behind AAC in terms of efficiency and loses more audio data at the same bitrate.
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Hide
See All
Recommend
1
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