Choosing an Audio Format for Your Digital Music System

MP3, FLAC, WMA – You see these acronyms when you’re dealing with your digital music, but do you know what they mean, and better yet, when and why to use each one?

There are many different audio file formats, and each one treats sound recordings differently. Some, like MP3s, are popular because they offer relatively good sound quality in a smaller file size. Others, like WAV, may be preferred for their superior sound and “Lossless” feature. (We’ll get to that term shortly.)

In a nutshell, audio formats have four features that need to be considered when deciding how to store your music – compression, data loss, bitrate, and developer support. A Fifth consideration is how the format is supported on the digital music system you’re using.

Audio Format Features

Compression - Most audio formats shoot for the smallest file size possible. They accomplish this by deleting unnecessary bits of data similar to the way a zipped file works. All the data is still there, so there is no loss of sound quality. WAV and AIFF are the only formats that do not use compression; all others do to some extent.

Lossy or Lossless – A lossy format is one that produces a smaller file size by throwing out some of the data. MP3 is one example. Obviously, they try not to delete so much that you’ll notice a decrease in quality. A lossless format keeps all of the data when compared to the original recording. WAV and FLAC are two popular lossless formats.

Bitrate - Measured in kilobits per second, it just tells you how much data is in the stream. The higher the bitrate, the better the music quality and larger the file size. 128 kb/sec is considered average quality, whereas 320 kb/sec is very high. A codec, which is the software that translates the music from digital bits to what you hear, can either have a variable bit rate, “VBR” or constant bitrate “CBR”.

Developer Support - Just like most of everything else in the world of software, audio formats can be open source or proprietary. Open source means that the code is available to anyone to extend or improve its functionality and typically enjoys greater support in the developer community. What this means to you is that the format will probably be around longer than proprietary ones. FLAC, WAV and MP3 are all open source. Two popular ones that are not are Apple’s AIFF and Vorbis.

Device Support - Audio formats are either natively supported by a music player or they are transcoded. If it enjoys native support, it means your digital music system can handle the decoding internally. Formats that are not native must be translated into a native format before your device can play it. If you have no way of doing the transcoding, say through a media application like Logitech’s SqueezeServer, a non-native file format will be unplayable.

Decision Time

So, after taking all of this into consideration, which file format should you use for your digital music system? The answer depends on several factors such as how much disk space you have, how sensitive your ears are to the loss of sound quality in lossy formats and whether or not you need a small file size for portable devices.

Many people keep two copies of each track – one in a lossless format like FLAC and another as an MP3 for portable devices. This system ensures they have a high quality version for home use and a small file size version to take with them. Ultimately, though, it’s your call.

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