Zro7In 2026: use AAC for delivery to phones/streaming, MP3 for maximum compatibility (email, podcast RSS, car stereos), FLAC for lossless archival at ~half WAV's size, and WAV only while editing or capturing. Convert between them losslessly with Zro7 Convert Audio Format.
Quick decision table
- Podcast RSS / distribution: MP3 96–128 kbps mono.
- Music streaming to a phone: AAC 256 kbps.
- Master / archival copy: FLAC (lossless, ~40–60% of WAV size).
- Currently editing / recording: WAV or FLAC.
- Emailing a voice memo: MP3 64 kbps — universally openable.
- Video soundtrack: AAC (native to MP4).
Real numbers
A 3-minute stereo music track at CD quality (44.1 kHz, 16-bit):
- WAV: ~32 MB
- FLAC: ~18 MB (lossless)
- MP3 320 kbps: ~7 MB (transparent)
- MP3 128 kbps: ~3 MB (noticeable on headphones)
- AAC 256 kbps: ~5.7 MB (transparent, better than MP3 at same size)
Where each format shines
- WAV — no codec, no CPU cost to decode. Zero-loss editing chains. Downside: huge files, no metadata to speak of.
- FLAC — bit-exact reconstruction. Great tagging, cover art, ReplayGain. Downside: some pro-audio DAWs don't support it as project media.
- MP3 — plays anywhere including 2005 hardware. Downside: lossy, floor of ~96 kbps for tolerable speech.
- AAC — ~30% smaller than MP3 at matching quality. Native to iTunes, YouTube, and MP4. Downside: slightly less universal (though everything modern reads it).
Converting between them
Use Convert Audio Format to move between any of these. WAV↔FLAC is fully lossless (both directions). Going lossy→lossless (e.g. MP3→WAV) increases file size but can never restore lost detail — the audio is still MP3-quality in a WAV wrapper. Only convert from originals.