Using Microsoft

Comparing Digital Audio Formats

Of all these different media file types, the ones you'll deal with most often are the digital audio formats. That's because you have to decide which file format to use when you're ripping CDs to your hard drive—and when you're choosing an online music store for song downloads.

Digital audio can be stored in any number of file formats; some formats store the audio data exactly as the original (in noncompressed format), whereas others use some sort of compression to reduce the otherwise-huge file sizes. Lossy compression loses some of the original audio information to create a smaller file; the compressed music still sounds good, but not quite as good as the original. Lossless compression doesn't affect the original ...