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Topic: AIFF and AIFF-C, what is the difference? (Read 11494 times) previous topic - next topic
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AIFF and AIFF-C, what is the difference?

In relation to the issue of AIFF on Mac OS X, what is the difference between AIFF and AIFF-C (Compressed) in terms of quality? I guess that sound quality of standard AIFF and AIFF-C (default on Mac OS X) are identical (lossless). Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.

AIFF and AIFF-C, what is the difference?

Reply #1 –
Quote from: wkmax on
In relation to the issue of AIFF on Mac OS X, what is the difference between AIFF and AIFF-C (Compressed) in terms of quality? I guess that sound quality of standard AIFF and AIFF-C (default on Mac OS X) are identical (lossless). Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.


From my recollection AIFF-C is just a very small extension to AIFF that allows the content to be in some form other than PCM via an extra bit of metadata that states the compression type. AIFF-C can still contain PCM samples though. So if both your AIFF and AIFF-C contain the same PCM samples, the quality will be the same. The only other type of compressed audio I ran across in AIFF-C was IMA ADPCM, which I think was a common use for AIFF-C way back when. Those certainly don't sound very good.

AIFF and AIFF-C, what is the difference?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: Kujibo on
From my recollection AIFF-C is just a very small extension to AIFF that allows the content to be in some form other than PCM via an extra bit of metadata that states the compression type. AIFF-C can still contain PCM samples though. So if both your AIFF and AIFF-C contain the same PCM samples, the quality will be the same. The only other type of compressed audio I ran across in AIFF-C was IMA ADPCM, which I think was a common use for AIFF-C way back when. Those certainly don't sound very good.


Thanks very much for the answer Kujibo, I'm beginning to understand the difference 

Any other help?