Many of you think that premium Headphones and Speakers deliver premium Sound quality. Yes! It's true. But not always. The coin has another side which is called Audio Codec.
Many people know about Audio codecs or Audio file formats. But this article is for those who don't know much about Audio Codec. Let's see what is audio codec.
What is Audio Codecs?
What is a codec? Codec stands for coding and decoding. Before talking about audio codecs, let me tell you the difference between audio codecs software and Hardware. An audio codec is software that compresses and decompresses audio data.
Audio codec hardware is a device that converts analog signals into digital and vice-versa. In this article, we are talking only about audio codec software.
What is audio codec used for?
Some of you might be thinking, Why does this audio codec exist? What is the audio codec used? The simple answer to this question is Convenience. Are you ready to spend 1GB of data to download a 2 minutes song? If you have an 8 GB memory card in your mobile, you could have stored only eight songs if Audio codecs didn't exist.
Audio codecs compress the data so well that it consumes only 10% space of its original size. If you have a 1GB audio file, Audio codecs compress, and it becomes a 10 MB file. more importantly, it doesn't affect the audio quality of the file though the size has reduced.
What is the best audio codec for Sound quality?
After knowing about the audio codecs, your next question might be about the best audio codecs for sound quality. If you are confused about what audio codecs you should use, Let me tell you there are different types of compression techniques.
Before diving in deep, I must tell you the two major types of Audio codecs.
- Uncompressed Audio codec
- Compressed Audio codec
Compressed audio codecs further classified into two categories.
- Lossless compression
- Lossy compression
As the name suggests, uncompressed audio is audio without compression. You get unaltered audio with it. This audio format gives the best sound quality among the three but consumes a lot of disc space.
.WAV and .BWF are the most commonly used uncompressed audio formats.
WAV Audio: WAV means waveform audio file. Microsoft and IBM jointly developed this format. It generally contains uncompressed audio streams as well as compressed audio too.
Many music producers prefer the WAV format to edit the audio. As a Music producer, the WAV format has many advantages, including easy editing, Top quality sound, High-quality recording, etc but as a general listener, It's a little bit difficult to use the WAV format always.
Because of large files, WAV consumes more data and time to download. But as a general user, the Major disadvantage of the WAV file format is the lack of compatibility with some services and devices. Before using WAV, make sure they are compatible with your audio device.
Lossless audio: In this type of compression, audio is compressed without losing any data or loss of audio quality. FLAC and ALAC are the commonly known lossless audio formats.
Lossy Audio: Lossy audio is the opposite of lossless audio. In this format, some data or audio information is removed, that affects the audio quality. the most common Lossy file formats are AAC (Advanced audio coding) and MP3(MPEG Audio Layer 3). Many of you might ask a question. Which one is better, MP3 or AAC. Let's compare these two.
The full form of MP3 is MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3. It's a method of compression and decompression of digitally encoded audio files. MP3 files are very much smaller in size compared to.
WAV files. It's one of the best ways to reduce the audio file without affecting the sound quality. Though they aren't as good as .WAV files, General listeners can hardly catch the difference in sound quality between these two.
There are some advantages and disadvantages of using MP3 audio codecs. But, Overall, advantages overpower disadvantages.
The advantages of the MP3 audio format
- Consumes lesser space
- Reduce downloading time and cost
- Convenience in sharing the data
- Easy to control the sound quality by using Bit rate, sample rate, and some other parameters
The only downside is the decrease in sound quality due to the compression of data.
AAC Audio Codec: AAC means Advanced audio codecs. It's one step ahead of the MP3 audio format. AAC compresses and encodes audio files like many other audio codecs. But It uses the best possible compression algorithm.
There is No doubt AAC is better than MP3 and many audio codecs, but every audio device doesn't support AAC. Though it works with Android and Apple devices, you can get the most out of it when you have an Apple device.
What audio codec should I use?
Now the most crucial question someone should ask about audio codecs is, Which audio codec should I use? As a general listener, you may not be interested in technical details. But you must pay attention to the audio device you are buying. You should check your audio device compatibility with the audio codecs.
MP3 is the most popular lossy audio codec. The reason for their popularity is they are compatible with most devices. AAC Audio codec delivers better sound quality compared to MP3. But they are compatible with limited devices.
So if you ask me which audio format is better, I would suggest the Lossless audio format is good. Why? Because it delivers good sound quality without consuming much space.
Though it's not as good as uncompressed audio, it's more convenient and cost effective. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is one of the best lossless audio formats.
Let's list down types and different formats of audio codecs.
Uncompressed Audio formats
- WAV (Waveform Audio File)
- DSD (Direct stream Digital)
- AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format)
- PCM (Pulse Code Modulation)
Lossy Audio Formats
- MP3
- AAC
- Ogg Vorbis
Lossless Audio Formats
- FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)
- ALAC (Appleβs Lossless Audio Codec)
Conclusion
An audio codec is a significant concept you must know about if you are an audiophile and music lover. While buying audio devices, make sure they support enough types of audio codecs or formats.
Uncompressed audio codec gives the highest quality sound, but they are inconvenient as they consume too much space on your disc. While reviewing any audio gadget we always try to mention the specifications of that product which also includes Supported audio codecs.