There are some who do think WAV sounds slightly better than AIFF due to something called endianess:
Some have suggested the sonic differences between WAV and AIFF has to do with their “endianness”. Both WAV and AIFF music audio files are compatible with Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems. However Mac PowerPC’s are big-endian, whereas the newer Intel Macs made since 2006 are little-endian and Windows PCs are little-endian.
If you have a different operating system or architectures you can check your endianness here: Endianness - Wikipedia
The term ‘endian’ refers to the ordering of individually addressable sub-components within the representation of a larger data item as stored in external memory. Each sub-component in the representation has a unique degree of significance, like the place value of digits in a decimal number. Endianness is a difference in data representation at the hardware level and may or may not be transparent at higher levels, depending on factors such as the type of high level language used.
The usual contrast is whether the most significant or least significant byte is ordered first. A big-endian music file stores the most significant byte first and a little-endian music file stores the least significant byte first.
As explained above in the AIFF section there are two kinds of AIFF files: little-endian or big-endian depending on what computer they were created on. In iTunes both types of AIFF audio files say AIFF, perhaps so the novice user is not confused. Instead go to “Finder”, click on “Music”, open the “iTunes” folder, select “iTunes media”, then “Music” and then select an album folder you know is in the AIFF format. You will notice the songs have an .aiff extension after the name, it will never show the “C” here either, we have just a couple of more steps. Right click on a song, select “Get Info”, this will open up an info box and under “kind” if it says “AIFF audio” it is big-endian, if it says “AIFF-C audio” it is small-endian.
WAV files are almost always little-endian. Big-endian WAV files are extremely rare so you likely won’t ever run into one
Wrong, flac is lossless but it uses data compression this will give the cpu extra overload, I can hear the difference, and also friends of me too
so if you cannot hear the difference thats your personal experience
99 procent of the studio professionals think otherwise they use WAV
I’ve heard that before but never been able to reproduce the effect
With a very resolving system I can hear zero difference if I add or remove CPU load from the Roon server. I cannot do the same at the endpoint as it is dedicated hardware
The decompress is done in my NAS server and PCM is sent to my audio endpoints on the network. You cannot hear any degradation in sound. I have Wav and Flac files. In my library 24 bit Wav files too.
Well, if you doing any mathematical manipulation of the PCM data, endianness might matter. Note that I said “might”. Some types of calculations are more efficient on little-endian while others are more efficient on big-endian. If you are sending the PCM data bit perfect to the DAC then it doesn’t matter at all.
Also note that AIFF-C has two different uncompressed formats. One is big-endian and the other is small-endian. Based on what I am reading, the standard uncompressed AIFF-C format is big-endian.
Endianness. Sprinkling in a little bit of technical jargon that is not widely known, a familiar technique.
There are people who defend astrology by explaining that it is not unreasonable that the gravitational pull of Jupiter during the birth process could influence the evolving young mind. (Except the gravitational effect of the nearby doctor is greater than that of distant Jupiter, but that is such a boring, objectivist statement…)
“Everything matters.” In my house, before we listen to a USB-connected DAC we all lie down in a circle on the floor and clap our hands. I know that some people doubt the efficacy of this. You have your opinion, I have mine, we will have to agree to disagree.
The only reasonable and technical explanation that I ever remember reading about endianness was on one of those older Naim forums (it seems to be completely gone now and thus unsearchable). Their architecture in the devices at the time was optimized for little endian formats. Don’t know if it holds up now?
In my non RAAT system and where the decoding is happening inside the machine, I personally prefer WAV. I’ll even take uncompressed FLAC before taking AIFF (or at least the way they are being produced by my various Macs). All three produced from FLAC master files. I use XLD on Mac for transcoding. XLD produces AIFF-C. All these uncompressed formats are the same size (small +/- for artwork).
I was expecting zero differences between AIFF and WAV, since I never heard anyone say anything bad about AIFF or even indicate at the time that there would be differences. I had zero expectations to hear anything different. I only added AIFF in the test just to check if the metadata was being displayed correctly. It wasn’t even intended as a listening test. Something about AIFF sounded bright/harsh with lack of depth in comparison to WAV or FLAC uncompressed. I didn’t enjoy the edge on the transients with AIFF when I was just listening for fun without trying to compare. (I’ve had others tell me on the same system that WAV sounds coarse and grainy in comparison to compressed FLAC, so go figure) I’ve only done the test 3-4 times over the years and for some reason, my ears/hunch did not agree with AIFF. WAV sounded relaxed with right depth that gets out of the way. I have no idea why this may be the case.
I certainly won’t tell anyone to not use AIFF based on this or even state my limited situational testing as a fact. I wouldn’t even put money on myself in a blind test, since it’s such a minor thing. It sounds crazy, but I thought I’d share it anyway. Out of all the weird audiophilia things, this is the one that takes the cake for me. It makes very little sense to me, so I just chalked it to being a bug with either my computers, or the software, or how the audio device is handling the format.
Nonetheless, it’s been a non-issue anyways with FLAC master Roon library and WAV for playback.
I’ll also add it’s insane that in some systems, we can hear difference between formats. Meanwhile, on my iMac connected via USB playing any lossless format, I can start opening several other heavy CPU apps like Logic or Lightroom and be working on them, have Youtube and Netflix streaming, while downloading things and it doesn’t feel like the sound gets worse. The CPU, network, and graphical workload is far more compared to differences between FLAC and WAV, or ALAC vs FLAC (which is what this thread was about! ) and yet it doesn’t seem to matter. The only bad thing that happens in that case is if the computer ever freezes and the audio stutters.
The only time in a general computing system where I felt CPU optimization made any difference SQ wise was in a old Amarra system around 2013? Amarra had an aggressive optimization script that only worked with that particular Mac OS release and I remember you’d have to restart the computer for the effect to become noticeable. It was far better than any of Audirvana’s optimization in any released version.
Maybe addition and compounding of noise is harder to notice, but in the other direction when you start reducing it, it becomes easier to hear (after a certain threshold)? I have no idea, just brainstorming out here and trying to rationalize my observations.
All of this WAV vs AIFF vs FLAC vs little-endian vs big-endian is moot if you use the Roon Core/Roon Endpoint model as the Roon Core sends the Roon Endpoint the same bits regardless.
Phieuuuw, that was a lot to take in
Anyway, I’m happy with my CD collection ripped to FLAC uncompressed (using XLD), and my ROCK NUC plays all fine to my RAAT endpoints. I’m rediscovering my music collection, since I recently joined ROON… and I’m shocked how I’ve been able to listen to music mainly using iTunes/AirPlay all those years.
These threads are an interesting read, to gather insights in different formats etc, but as long as your ears are happy, … don’t forget to enjoy the music! (with the options you have available)
Haha I have been ripping to Lossless Flac get it lossless. For decades part of an audio club and we have swapped files made of exact same CD’s in wav and lossless flac using same software. Noone has ever heard a difference. Now that storage is cheap its a moot point. Size used to be a huge factor with cost of storage. Never mind getting a warning from your playback software a file is corrupt (flac) instead of a wav file with a tearing or distorted sound that would leave you diving for your volume control before your woofers jump out of baskets or tweeters melt. (This can also happen with poor ripping software and or a bad optical drive)
Now with flacs where people have heard a difference is ripping software. Always DBpoweramp has sounded the best. Confirms ripped music is accurate against a database. Finds accurate metadata and coverart lets you choose from 4 sources. You get what you pay for, spend 50k on stereo but want to use free software to rip…
Really use lossless flac much better format for error checking and metadata. Make sure your ripping software compares all ripped music against a database of other rips. Glad I made good choices back in the day to start over with ripping 1500 cd’s would make me loose it. I only have 700-800 left to rip.
As always don’t listen to people including me use your ears. Have an open mind instead of discussing on a forum prove it to yourself!
Won’t reply I know what sounds best to me I have tested when my ears were much younger. Had others confirm for themselves with their systems Just had to give my 2 cents.
It makes very little sense to me, so I just chalked it to being a bug with either my computers, or the software, or how the audio device is handling the format.
) and yet it doesn’t seem to matter. The only bad thing that happens in that case is if the computer ever freezes and the audio stutters.