The emergence of more advanced audio formats signaled a new wave of musical interest, raising listeners’ expectations for quality. The chance to hear the most authentic recreations of your favorite music and artists. See below, what is lossless audio and where we can find this format more faithful to the sound recorded in the studio.
What is Lossless Audio?
Lossless audio files contain 100% of the recorded audio data. As such, they offer the highest quality sound, but they also result in larger file sizes.
The two most popular lossless audio file formats are WAV ( Waveform Audio Format ) and AIFF ( Audio Interchange File Format ). On physical media, they were more easily found on CDs, along with FLAC compression.
Is there lossless audio with compression?
Lossless compressed audio files are designed to compress audio data into a smaller file size. Even so, they take up a lot of space, but the advantage is that the user still doesn’t lose audio data.
Theoretically, this file type should look identical to the lossless audio files mentioned above. Two examples of compressed lossless audio file formats are FLAC ( Free Lossless Audio Codec ) and Apple Lossless.
Lossy audio compression
Lossy compressed audio files are created by removing some audio data to decrease file size. Lossy compression can be adjusted to compress the audio too much or too little.
As a result, most audio file formats strike a balance between audio quality and file size. The most common lossy compressed audio formats are AAC ( Advanced Audio Coding ) and MP3.
How to choose what to listen to?
If you’re not sure if lossless audio is the best choice, the best way to take the test is to listen to a song in MP3 and the same song in a lossless format.
If the user cannot tell the difference between them, opt for MP3. It is the most used format and by using it, you can load many more songs on your portable player.
To use lossless audio, a compatible player is required. Some players, such as TrekStor vibez or Cowon’s iAudio 7 support the FLAC format.
On the other hand, Apple’s iPod supports the company’s own lossless format, ALAC. The main reason to use lossless audio is if you have a very high quality speaker system at home or if you use very expensive headphones.
If you’re just listening to music on your iPod or other device, wearing the original headphones on the way to work, you don’t need lossless audio.
