Compare WAV and MP3 | features and which is better

The development of digital audio distribution has led to the fact that several dozen audio file formats are now on the market. Each developer tried to come up with their own coding method and encryption algorithms, and then make them popular.

But now, in 2019, it has become clear that MP3 has won the battle of music formats. And let the developers no longer support it — it’s okay. Anyway, music in files of this type can be played on any phone, player, computer, radio, TV, and even some models of smart watches.

However, with the purchase of high-quality audio equipment — for example, headphones and a sound card for a total of one and a half salaries — the disadvantages of MP3 begin to appear. It seems that the technique is good, but still the music sounds somehow “flat” and dull. And all because MP3 cuts off pieces of the audio stream.

And then you want to choose a better format. For example, a slightly less common WAV, which will help the technique to “open up”.

But is this WAV really that good? Let’s compare two formats — WAV and MP3 — and choose the right one!

What is the difference between compressed and uncompressed music formats?

Because WAV is an example of an uncompressed music format, and MP3 is a compressed one, then in order to understand the key difference between them, it is worth understanding what compressed and uncompressed music formats are. We won’t go deep into it, we’ll talk about sigma-delta modulation too, just “let’s go over the tops”.

Uncompressed music formats were among the first to appear. They involve sequential recording of every sound captured by a microphone in a studio, every note, every attempt by a vocalist to hit all eight octaves in a single song. The end result is an incredibly detailed file as each sound is specified.

There are only a couple of problems. Due to the high detail of the audio file, it turns out to be huge. On average, a three-minute song in a WAV container «weighs» about 60 megabytes. As a result, a gigabyte flash drive is good if at least one artist’s album fits. And in a time when a 1 GB hard drive was an unattainable luxury, squandering valuable HDD space on songs was at least imprudent.

Second problem is that a powerful and fast processor is needed to decode such music. That is, the chip has to constantly take a digital signal and turn it into an analog signal that goes to the speakers. At the same time, there are a lot of digital signals — we remind you, every sound. So the performance of the chip must also be high.

Thus, the task of engineers and programmers was to make sure that a fan of some Robbie Williams could keep his entire discography (14 albums, 3 collections, countless singles, 8 DVDs) without having to buy a server. This is how compressed formats appeared, of which MP3 is an example.

Compressed formats imply additional transcoding of music. The audio stream is split into separate frames, then they are glued together, detail is partially lost (for example, two loudness peaks are glued into one), it is possible — like in MP3 — some frequency ranges are cut off … And as a result, the file is much smaller!

On average, a three-minute song in an MP3 file with a high bitrate (320 kbps) «weighs» about 10 megabytes. That is, the volume occupied by one song in WAV will fit a whole EP (mini-album) in MP3! And if you reduce the bitrate by cutting out even more parts-frames from the audio stream and significantly degrading the quality, then the entire discography of the long-suffering Robbie Williams can be “crammed”.

On the other hand, it cannot be said that the quality loss is too significant for the listener. MP3 320 kbps provides enough quality for listening to music, watching movies, etc. Any “missing details” are either ignored by the listener or “thought out” to build a complete acoustic picture.

In addition, the quality of playback is also affected by the quality of the equipment. On computers with a weak integrated sound card and Chinese speakers, MP3 64 kbps, MP3 320 kbps, WAV will sound equally bad. But as soon as you get a multi-channel audio system, an amplifier, a discrete sound card with a 192 kHz DAC — and the sound in WAV flourishes. But MP3 will seem too flat and low-detailed.

And now to the description of formats.

WAV music format

The WAV music format was developed jointly by engineers from IBM and Microsoft. The goal was to create a universal container format that would store uncompressed music and be playable on multiple devices.

Actually, they succeeded. WAV fell in love with both users (thanks largely to the native support of the Windows operating system) and music studios (minimum loss, fast encoding and decoding).

True, WAV has not lost the main drawback of uncompressed formats — the huge file size. But the sound quality is the highest. In fact, this is almost an analog format in which the audio stream is recorded in waves.

MP3 music format

The MP3 music format was developed by the German company Fraunhofen IIS and was originally created for transferring audio in video files. Even its name stands for Moving Picture Expert Group Layer 3, that is, «the third layer in moving pictures.» But, as it turned out, the format is perfect for recording any sounds in general and is easily reproduced without being packaged in an MPEG container.

Since the task of the developers was to reduce the bitrate (“size”) of the audio track, otherwise it would weigh like a video track, they boldly mocked the audio stream. And, in addition to compression with division into frames and gluing of peaks, they also removed inaudible frequencies. That is, when encoding, everything below 20 Hz and above 15 kHz is removed from the audio stream. In theory, a person does not hear this, so he should not suffer.

In practice, it turns out that frequencies below 20 Hz make the bass deeper, and above 15 kHz, the voice is more detailed. But it does not matter if headphones or speakers cannot reproduce frequencies below 20 Hz and above 15 kHz. And budget audio equipment just doesn’t know how to do this.

But MP3 files «weigh» a little and provide sufficient quality for independent listening. And in the era of digital distribution, these two virtues have made MP3 very popular.

Difference between MP3 and WAV

Actually, the main difference between WAV and MP3 is that the former is uncompressed and incredibly detailed, while the latter is compressed and not very detailed. But for the sake of music in the first format, you will have to buy an external hard drive, and in the second, a flash drive is enough.

1. The WAV format in 2019 is commonly used in the field of «professional audio». It records musicians in studios. It mixes songs. Only notorious audiophiles with excellent audio quality listen to music in it.

2. The MP3 format is now ubiquitous. It is suitable for listening at home, on the road (from a smartphone or player), in a car through a radio. The CD will fit about 50 songs in high quality or about 200 in low quality.

3. The quality, of course, is not sky-high, but sufficient. And «size» decides.

4. Speaking in numbers, the WAV bitrate is 1140 kbps, the MP3 bitrate is a maximum of 320 kbps.

Which format is better — WAV or MP3?

There is no single answer to this question. These formats are designed for different purposes. Comparison table below:

And when it comes to recording music, you should choose WAV. It is easier to work with him in the future, and the quality is higher.