AIFF or WAV: which one does your software want?
Same uncompressed audio, different wrappers. When a tool insists on WAV, this swaps the wrapper without touching a sample.
Runs in your browser. Your file never leaves your computer.
- QualityIdentical; a container swap
- SizeEssentially unchanged
- FixesWindows tools that refuse AIFF
- TimeNear-instant
AIFF and WAV are near-twins: both store plain uncompressed samples, one arranged the Apple way, one the Microsoft way. Software mostly reads both, but exceptions persist, particularly on Windows: transcription tools, older editors, broadcast systems and plenty of hardware only list WAV. This conversion rewraps the identical audio in the WAV layout. Nothing is decoded, degraded or resampled; the file size barely changes, and the result opens where the AIFF would not.
Questions
Is anything lost converting AIFF to WAV?
No. Both formats hold raw PCM samples; the conversion rewrites headers and byte order, not audio.
Why do the two formats exist at all?
History. Apple defined AIFF and Microsoft defined WAV in the same era, each fitting its platform's conventions. The audio payload is equivalent.
Which should I archive?
Neither, ideally: FLAC holds the same audio at half the size with checksums. Between the two, WAV has slightly wider tool support.
Is the file uploaded?
No. The rewrap happens in your browser in moments.
Related conversions
- AIFF to FLACApple's uncompressed studio format packed losslessly to about half the size, with tags that actually work.
- AIFF to M4AFrom a studio-size file to a share-size one: AAC at 256 kbps, native on the Apple gear the AIFF came from.
- AIFF to MP3The universally playable delivery format, encoded from your uncompressed audio on your own machine.
- AIFF to OGGThe efficiency codec for web and app work, straight from uncompressed source, no server in the loop.
- MP3 to WAVFor the DAW, the sampler, the CD burner or the hardware that refuses compressed audio. Uncompressed 16-bit PCM, nothing added, nothing recovered.
- FLAC to WAVUncompressed PCM for the editor, burner or instrument that refuses FLAC. Same sound, bigger file, zero decoding surprises.
Part of convert audio files in your browser. Every other conversion is on the conversions index.