Difference between AIFF vs. WAV vs. FLAC vs. ALAC Lossless Audio Format

Some people search for AIFF vs. WAV or other formats. It makes sense that more and more people enjoy high quality music on their devices. It cannot be denied that music is a good way to relax and get entertainment.

To catch up such trend, developers and manufacturers released a wide variety of digital audio formats.

According to our research, there are nearly a hundred audio container formats on market for different purposes. If you want to enjoy excellent audio experiences on computer or mobile device, you have to choose the right format.

In this tutorial, we will introduce AIFF and compare it with other lossless audio formats.

• Part 1: What is AIFF?
• Part 2: AIFF vs WAV/FLAC/ALAC
• Part 3: How to Convert AIFF to WAV (Online & Offline)

Part 1: What is AIFF?

If you have a MacBook, you may be familiar with AIFF. It is short of Audio Interchange File Format developed by Apple for storing audio content on Mac computers. AIFF is not only an uncompressed audio format, but also lossless in quality.

In another word, AIFF files are able to store original quality audios. The biggest downside is that it can take up a lot of storage space.

Part 2: AIFF vs WAV/FLAC/ALAC

In addition to AIFF, there are more lossless audio formats, like WAV, FLAC and ALAC. But what is difference between these popular audio formats?

AIFF vs WAV

WAV, stands for Waveform Audio Format, is the native audio format for Windows operating systems. AIFF vs WAV are both uncompressed audio format and taking up a lot of space.

The difference of AIFF to WAV is that former is the standard audio format on Windows and latter is the native audio format for Mac.

FLAC vs AIFF

FLAC is also known as Free Lossless Audio Codec. Though FLAC and AIFF are lossless audio formats, FLAC vs AIFF is the copy right. The former is an open format using royalty-free licensing, and latter integrates serious copy right.

AIFF vs ALAC

ALAC also called Apple Lossless Audio Codec. If you compare AIFF vs ALAC, you will discover that the former is an uncompressed audio format and the latter is a compressed audio container. They are two non-lossy formats encoding audio files with all information intact, but latter is smaller than the former.

Part 3: How to Convert AIFF to WAV (Online & Offline)

If you listen to AIFF files on Windows, you'd better convert AIFF to WAV. In this part, you can learn complete this task online or on desktop.

How to convert AIFF to WAV online

There are many online audio converters, only a few supports AIFF file extension. We use ZAMZAR AIFF to WAV converter as the example to show you the workflow.

Step 1 Input www.zamzar.com/convert/aiff-to-wav/ into the address bar of your browser.

Step 2 When the online converter page opens, click on the "Choose Files" button, select AIFF files and upload them.

Step 3 Type your email address into the box and click on the "Convert" button to start converting. When it finishes, WAV music will be sent to your email automatically.

How to convert AIFF to WAV on desktop

If you have dozens of AIFF files to convert to WAV, online audio converter is not a good option. That is why we recommend Aiseesoft AIFF to WAV Converter. It is one of the best audio converter software equipping extensive features, like:

• 1. It has the capacity to convert AIFF to WAV and other commonly used audio formats with a single click.
• 2. Besides local AIFF files, it is able to download and then convert it to other formats.
• 3. The biggest advantage is to keep original audio quality during AIFF converting and editing.
• 4. This audio converter offers a variety of custom options, like bit rate, sample rate and other parameters to create personalized results.
• 5. Users can listen to the results after AIFF to WAV converting with the built-in media player.
• 6. If you want to enjoy AIFF files on your smartphone, the audio converter could preset various parameters automatically after set up the target device.
• 7. It relies on multi-thread and hardware acceleration technology to compile AIFF files in batch.

In a word, it is the best option to convert AIFF to WAV on Windows 10/8/8.1/7/XP and Mac OS X.

How to convert AIFF to WAV on desktop

Step 1 Add AIFF files into the best audio converter

Get the best AIFF to WAV converter installed on your computer. Then launch the application, click on the "Add File" button, navigate to the AIFF files you want to convert and import them. Or drag and drop the AIFF files into the home window directly.

Step 2 Set up WAV as the output format

Locate to the bottom area after import AIFF files, unfold the dropdown menu next to "Profile" and select WAV. If you want to enjoy AIFF files on your mobile phone, select the target device on the list. AIFF to WAV converter will preset all options automatically.

Then hit the "Browse" button and choose a proper destination to store the WAV results. To customize other parameters, click on the "Settings" button to open the Settings window.

Step 3 Save AIFF to WAV offline

Finally, click on the "Convert" button and trigger the AIFF to WAV converting process. You can set the action after the process is done, such as open output folder. When prompted completed, you can listen to your music at anytime and anywhere.

Conclusion

Though MP3 is the popular audio format on market, it is not the best choice to get excellent audio experiences, because it is a compressed and lossy format.

In this tutorial, we have introduced and compared several popular lossless music formats, AIFF, WAV, FLAC, and ALAC. Now, you can pick up a proper format based on your demands. Furthermore, we also shared the best way to convert AIFF to WAV and other uncompressed audio formats. Now, you can get the best music entertainment on your devices as you wish.