Comparison of audio coding formats


The following tables compare general and technical information for a variety of audio coding formats. For listening tests comparing the perceived audio quality of audio formats and codecs, see the article Codec listening test.

General information

Operating system support


CodecWindowsmacOSLinuxBSDUnixPalm OSSymbian OSRockboxiOSAndroidChromium
AAC
AC-3
ALAC
ALS
aptX
CELT
E-AC3
FLAC
Monkey's Audio
MP3
Musepack
Opus
RealAudio
Speex
Vorbis
True Audio
WavPack
WMA

Multimedia frameworks support

Audio compression formatACMDirectShowQuickTimeGStreamerFFmpegMedia Foundation
8SVX
AAC
AC3
ALS
AMR
ALAC
aptX
ATRAC3
ATRAC3plus
CELT
Cook Codec
DCA aka DTS
DTS-HD
E-AC-3
FLAC
HE-AAC
Monkey's Audio
WavPack
Shorten
Sonic Audio
MP3
RealAudio
Speex
Vorbis
La ???
LPAC
Windows Media Audio v1
Windows Media Audio v2
Windows Media Audio Pro
Windows Media Audio Lossless
Windows Media Audio Voice
Musepack
Meridian Lossless Packing
Nellymoser Asao Codec in Flash
OptimFROG
Truespeech
True Audio
QCELP
Audio compression formatACMDirectShowQuickTimeGStreamerFFmpegMedia Foundation

Technical details

Audio compression formatAlgorithmSample rateBits per sampleLatencyStereoMultichannel
ALACLossless1–384000 Hz16, 20, 24, 32: Up to 8 channels
ALSLossless0–4 GHz8, 16, 24, 32 : Up to 65536 channels
ATRAC Advanced Lossless
Dolby TrueHDLossless48, 96, 192 kHz16, 20, 24: 5.1, 7.1, and Dolby Atmos object-based audio
DTS-HD Master AudioLosslessUp to 192 kHz: Up to 7.1
FLACLossless1–655350 Hz4, 8, 16, 20, 24, 324.3–92 ms : Up to 8 channels
HD-AAC
Monkey's AudioLossless1–655350 Hz8, 16, 241670 to 26,749 ms
OptimFROG
OSQ
RealAudio LosslessLosslessVaries Varies Varies: Up to 6 channels
True Audio Lossless0–4 GHz1 to > 64approx. 1045 ms: Up to 65535 channels
WavPack LosslessLossless, Hybrid1 Hz to 16.777216 MHzVaries in lossless mode; supports 32-bit float input; 2.2 minimum in lossy mode: Up to 256 channels
Windows Media Audio LosslessLossless8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz16, 24>100 ms: Up to 6 channels

Audio compression formatAlgorithmSample rateBit rateBits per sampleLatencyCBRVBRStereoMultichannel
G.711companding A-law or μ-law, PCM8 kHz64 kbit/s8 bit 125 µs
G.711.0Lossless compression of G.7118 kHz0.2–65.6 kbit/s8 bit 5–40 ms
G.711.1MDCT, A-law, μ-law8, 16 kHz64, 80, 96 kbit/s16 bit11.875 ms
G.718CELP, MDCT, Lossy8, 16 kHz8, 12, 12.65, 16, 24, 32 kbit/s16 bit42.875–43.875 ms
G.718BCELP, MDCT, Lossy, Sinusoidal Coding32 kHz36, 40, 48 kbit/s16 bit49.625 ms
G.719MDCT, Lossy 48 kHz32–88 kbit/s in 4 kbit/s steps, 88–128 kbit/s in 8 kbit/s steps16 bit40 ms: only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container: only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container
G.721ADPCM, Lossy8 kHz32 kbit/s13 bit
G.722sub-band ADPCM, Lossy16 kHz64 kbit/s
14 bit4 ms
G.722.1Modulated Lapped Transform, Lossy 16 kHz24, 32 kbit/s16 bit40 ms
G.722.1CModulated Lapped Transform, Lossy 32 kHz24, 32, 48 kbit/s16 bit40 ms
G.722.2 multi-rate wideband ACELP, Lossy16 kHz6.60, 8.85, 12.65, 14.25, 15.85, 18.25, 19.85, 23.05, 23.85 kbit/s14 bit25 ms: only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container
G.723ADPCM, Lossy8 kHz24, 40 kbit/s13 bit
G.723.1MP-MLQ, ACELP, Lossy8 kHz5.3, 6.3 kbit/s13 bit37.5 ms
G.726ADPCM, Lossy8 kHz16, 24, 32, 40 kbit/s13 bit125 µs
G.727ADPCM, Lossy8 kHz16, 24, 32, 40 kbit/s13 bit
G.728low-delay CELP, Lossy8 kHz16 kbit/s13 bit0.625 ms
G.729CS-ACELP, Lossy8 kHz8 kbit/s13 bit15 ms
G.729DCS-ACELP, Lossy8 kHz6.4 kbit/s13 bit
G.729ECS-ACELP, Lossy8 kHz11.8 kbit/s13 bit15 ms
G.729.1CELP, TDBWE, TDAC, Lossy8, 16 kHz8 kbit/s, 12–32 kbit/s in 2 kbit/s steps16 bit48.9375 ms