Lossless comparison

The lossless comparison page aims to gather information about lossless codecs available so users can make an informed decision as to what lossless codec to choose for their needs.

Introduction

Given the enormous amount of lossless audio compressor choices available, it is a very difficult task to choose the one most suited for each person's needs. Some people only take into consideration compression performance when choosing a codec, but as the following table and article shows, there are several other features worth taking into consideration when making a choice.

For example, users wanting good multiplatform compatibility and robustness (e.g., people sharing live recordings) would favour WavPack or FLAC. Another user, looking for the very highest compression available, would go with OptimFROG. Someone wanting portable support would use FLAC or ALAC, and so on. En fin, this is not a matter worth getting too worked up about. If you later find out the codec you chose isn't the best for your needs, you can just transcompress to another format, without risk of losing quality.

Note: for latest comparison of lossless compression, scroll down to the Links section of this page.

Comparison Table

Features	FLAC	WavPack	TAK	Monkey's	OptimFROG	ALAC	WMA
Encoding speed	very fast	very fast	very fast	fast	slow	fast	fast
Decoding speed	very fast	fast	very fast	slow	very slow	fast	average
Compression	57.0%	57.1%	56.0%	55.1%	54.6%	57.8%	58.4%
Flexibility	very good	very good	very good	very good	very good	bad	bad
Error handling	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	no	yes
Seeking	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Tagging	Vorbis tags	ID3/APE	APEv2 (exp.)	ID3/APE	ID3/APE	iTunes	ASF
Hardware support	very good	limited	no	limited	no	good	limited
Software support	very good	good	average	good	average	average	good
Hybrid/lossy	LossyWAV	yes	LossyWAV	no	yes	no	LossyWAV
ReplayGain	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	sort of	no
RIFF chunks	yes	yes		yes	yes		no
Streaming	yes	yes	yes	no	yes	yes	yes
Pipe support	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Open source	yes	yes	no	yes	no	yes	no
Multichannel	yes	yes	yes	no	no	yes	yes
High resolution	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
OS support	All	All	Win/Linux Wine	All	Win/Mac/Linux	All	Win/Mac

(table continued below)

Features	Shorten	LA	TTA	MPEG-4 ALS	MPEG-4 SLS	Real Lossless
Encoding speed	very fast	very slow	fast	average	slow	slow
Decoding speed	fast	very slow	average	fast	slow	very fast
Compression	62.3%	53.3%	56.6%	56.6%	?	~56%
Flexibility	bad	average	bad	very good	bad	bad
Error handling	no	no	yes	yes	yes
Seeking	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Tagging	no	ID3v1	ID3	yes	yes	proprietary
Hardware support	limited	no	limited	no	no	no
Software support	very good	bad	average	bad	bad	bad
Hybrid/lossy	no	no	no	LossyWAV	yes	no
ReplayGain	no	no	yes	yes	yes	no
RIFF chunks	yes	yes	no
Streaming	no		no	yes	yes	yes
Pipe support	yes	yes	no			no
Open source	yes	no	yes	yes	yes	no
Multichannel	no	no	yes	yes	yes	no
High resolution	no	no	yes	yes	yes	no
OS support	All	Win/Linux	All	All	All	Win/Mac/Linux

A The Compression ratio is calculated with the division of compressed size by uncompressed size * 100. So, lower is better. Encoding speed, Decoding speed and Compression ratio are based on each encoder's default settings and are taken from the most recent lossless codec comparison mentioned at the links section of this page. Encoding speed is very fast if > 150x, fast if >75x, average if >40x, slow if >20x, very slow if <20x. Decoding speed is similar but thresholds are doubled, i.e., very fast if >300x, fast if >150x etc. Thresholds for compression are at 56% and 58%

B Flexibility refers to the amount of encoding choices offered to the users (Fast/low compression, Slow/high compression and everything inbetween)

C Error handling means that a codec can detect a corruption in a file and warn the user about it, but still decode most of the file, only leaving a small gap of silence where the error was detected. Corruption in this sense means bits that are flipped, not removed

Codecs

These are the most popular lossless codecs, in alphabetical order:

Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC)

http://www.apple.com/itunes/import.html

ALAC is a codec developed by Apple for usage in iPod and AirPort Express.

ALAC pros

• Fast encoding
• Fast decoding
• Open source (encoding and decoding via FFmpeg and CUETools, decoding only via a standalone decoder)
• Hardware support (iPod, AirPort Express)
• Software support (iTunes, Quicktime)
• Streaming support
• Tagging support (QT tags)
• Supports multichannel audio and high resolutions
• Used by a few online stores

ALAC cons

• Limited software support
• No error detection/robustness
• No hybrid/lossy mode
• Not very efficient

ALAC Other features

• Fits in the MP4 container

Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC)

https://xiph.org/flac/

FLAC is a lossless codec developed by Josh Coalson. It's part of the Xiph multimedia portfolio, along with Ogg, Vorbis, Speex and Theora.

FLAC pros

• Open source
• Very fast decoding
• Very fast encoding
• Very good hardware support (Android, Marantz, Sonos, many others)
• Very good software support
• Error robustness
• Streaming support
• Supports multichannel audio and high resolutions
• Tagging support (FLAC tags)
• Supports RIFF chunks
• Pipe support
• ReplayGain compatible
• Used by a few online stores

FLAC cons

• No hybrid/lossy mode

FLAC Other features

• Supports embedded CUE sheets (with limitations)
• Includes MD5 hashes for quick integrity checking as standard
• Fits the Ogg and Matroska containers

LosslessAudio (LA)

http://www.lossless-audio.com/

LA is a lossless codec developed by Michael Bevin.

LA pros

• Very high compression
• Tagging support (ID3v1)
• Supports RIFF chunks
• Pipe support

LA cons

• Closed source
• Very slow encoding and decoding
• Doesn't support multichannel audio and high resolutions
• No hardware support
• No hybrid/lossy mode
• Bad software support
• Doesn't support ReplayGain
• No updates since 2004

It's important to mention that the LA foobar plugin is buggy and doesn't produce lossless streams!

Monkey's Audio (APE)

http://www.monkeysaudio.com/

Monkey's Audio is a very efficient lossless compressor developed by Matt Ashland.

APE pros

• High compression
• Fast encoding
• Good software support
• Simple and user friendly. Official GUI provided.
• Java version (multiplatform)
• Tagging support (ID3v1, APE tags)
• High resolution audio support
• Supports RIFF chunks (only in the GUI encoder)
• Pipe support (only in a special version)

APE cons

• Problematic license (source provided, no modification or redistribution rights)
• Slow decoding
• No multichannel support
• No error robustness
• No hybrid/lossy mode
• Limited hardware support (Rockbox, some Cowon players); poor battery life due to complicated decoding (see MP3 player benchmarks)
• Higher compression levels are extremely CPU intensive
• Doesn't support ReplayGain

APE Other features

• Includes MD5 hashes for quick integrity checking
• Supports APL image link files (similar to CUE sheets)

MPEG-4 SLS

MPEG-4 SLS allows audio encoding from lossless scalable to AAC.

SLS pros

• Transcoding to standard AAC or any higher lossy bitrate at the speed of copying a file
• Scalable decoding from lossless, to any bitrate down to the AAC core track
• Best lossless compression available when you don't count the AAC track (~5% gain over any other lossless compression + AAC)
• High resolution audio support
• Multi channel audio support
• Open source (MPEG-4 Reference code)
• Embedded in standard MP4 files, so supports same tagging and ReplayGain features as AAC does.

SLS cons

• No usable software available yet
• Pure lossless compression not the best there is
• Seems to be slow in encoding and decoding, but we have to wait for released software
• No news or developments in last few years

SLS Other features

• Transform based lossless codec with optional LC AAC core track

OptimFROG (OFR)

http://www.losslessaudio.org/

OptimFROG is a lossless format developed by Florin Ghido to become the champion in audio compression.

OFR pros

• Very high compression
• Good software support
• Error robustness
• Streaming support
• Supports high resolutions
• Hybrid/lossy mode
• Tagging support (ID3, APE tags)
• Supports RIFF chunks
• ReplayGain compatible

OFR cons

• Closed source
• No multichannel audio support
• No hardware support
• Very slow decoding
• Slow encoding
• No updates since 2011 (last non-Windows release in 2006)

OFR Other features

• Supports 32bit float streams
• Includes MD5 hashes for quick integrity checking

RealAudio Lossless (RAL)

http://www.realnetworks.com/products/codecs/realaudio.html

RealAudio lossless is the lossless codec developed by Real Networks for their multimedia portfolio

RAL pros

• Very fast decoding
• Streaming support
• Tagging support (proprietary)

RAL cons

• Closed source
• Slow encoding
• No multichannel and high resolution audio support
• Little software support (Real Player)
• No hardware support
• No hybrid/lossy mode
• No pipe support
• Doesn't support ReplayGain

Shorten (SHN)

http://www.etree.org/shnutils/shorten/

Shorten is a very old and featureless lossless codec developed by Tony Robinson at SoftSound.

SHN pros

• Open source
• Fast decoding
• Very fast encoding
• Good software support
• Supports RIFF chunks
• Pipe support

SHN cons

• Quite inefficient
• No multichannel or high resolution audio support
• No hybrid/lossy mode
• No error robustness
• Not streamable
• No hardware support
• No native tagging
• Doesn't support ReplayGain
• No news or developments since 2007

True Audio (TTA)

http://www.true-audio.com/

TTA is a new lossless codec developed by a team of russian programmers.

TTA pros

• Open source
• Supports multichannel audio and high resolutions
• Tagging support (ID3)
• ReplayGain compatible
• Error robustness
• Average compression and decoding speed
• Fast encoding

TTA cons

• No streaming support
• No hybrid/lossy mode
• Doesn't support RIFF chunks
• No pipe support
• No update since 2007
• Limited hardware support

TTA Other features

• Fits the Matroska container

WavPack (WV)

http://www.wavpack.com/

WavPack is a fast and featureful lossless codec developed by David Bryant.

WV pros

• Open source
• Fast decoding
• Very fast encoding
• Good efficiency
• Error robustness
• Streaming support
• Hardware support (RockBox)
• Supports multichannel audio and high resolutions
• Hybrid/lossy mode
• Tagging support (ID3v1, APE tags)
• Supports RIFF chunks
• Ability to create self extracting files for Win32 platform
• Pipe support
• Good software support
• ReplayGain compatible

WV cons

• Limited hardware player support

WV Other features

• Supports 32bit float streams
• Supports embedded CUE sheets
• Includes MD5 hashes for quick integrity checking
• Can encode in both symmetrical and asymmetrical modes.
• Fits the Matroska container

Windows Media Audio Lossless (WMAL)

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/codecs/audio.aspx

WMA Lossless is the lossless codec developed by Microsoft to be featured in their Windows Media codec portfolio.

WMAL pros

• Streaming support
• Very good software support
• Hardware support (Microsoft Zune, Gigabeat V and S line from Toshiba)
• Supports multichannel audio and high resolutions.
• Tagging support (proprietary)
• Pipe support

WMAL cons

• Rather low efficiency
• Closed source
• No hybrid/lossy mode
• Doesn't support RIFF chunks
• Doesn't support ReplayGain

WMAL Other features

• Fits the ASF container

Oddball Formats

There are several old lossless formats that aren't being featured in the article above. Reasons are: lack of widespread support, lack of features, bad efficiency and, most importantly, it seems no one is really interested in them.

Most of those would have disappeared by now, but some of them are being preserved for posterity at rjamorim's

• Advanced Digital Audio (ADA)
• Bonk
• Marian's a-Pac
• AudioZip
• Dakx WAV
• Entis Lab MIO
• LiteWave
• LPAC
• Pegasus SPS
• RK Audio (RKAU)
• Ogg Squish
• Sonarc
• VocPack
• WavArc
• WaveZip/MUSICompress

See also

• Lossless

External links

Other lossless compressions comparisons Sorted based on last update date.

• Martijn van Beurden's comparison - tries to compare all codecs and settings with a balanced pool of music (last updated 2013-08-10)
• Synthetic Soul's comparison (last update 2007-07-28)
• Johan De Bock's speed oriented comparison - best choices speedwise are indicated in green, mostly electronic music (last updated 2006-07-22)
• Hans Heijden's -- used as reference to build the table (last updated 2006-07-07)
• Josef Pohm's comparison, hosted by Synthetic Soul (last update 2006-05-29)
• Bobulous' lossless audio comparison — a look at six lossless formats in terms of speed and file size (last updated 2006-05-22)
• Jhan De Bock's size oriented comparison - aimed only at the maximum compression setting for each codec (based on a somewhat limited set of samples, however) (last updated 2006-05-19)
• Gruboolez' -- comparing only classical music (last updated 2005-02-27)
• Speek's (last updated 2005-02-07)

More on lossless compressions

• The Lossless Audio Blog, retrieved from archive.org - by windmiller, is a reliable and complete source of news about lossless compression.
• Go to the Hydrogenaudio thread to discuss this article.