# ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec)



## rigoletto@ (Apr 16, 2018)

I just saw ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) is Apache-2.0 licensed.

Anyone with technical knowledge could say something about the ALAC implementation vs FLAC? I mean there is something in ALAC which can make that potentially a "better" option than FLAC?

The last time I saw the ALAC implementation allowed a "high-res" recording to be encoded to ALAC, lossless, but not the other way around. I mean, 192/24 ALAC would be truncated to 16bits if converted back to WAV or AIFF for instance.

Thanks!


----------



## Bobi B. (Apr 16, 2018)

IIRC FLAC gives a bit better compression, whereas ALAC integrates better in Apple's ecosystem. Since I'm in the latter, I keep all of my music to ALAC, including albums bought from HDtracks, or RIPped from DVD-Audio discs; all play fine everywhere, including via Plex and PlexAmp (via a USB FiiO DAC), or via Kodi on a Raspberry Pi (plays high-def via HDMI connection to a receiver).

Generally open-source utilities and players work fine with either.


----------

