What is AIFF?
AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) is an audio file/container format historically associated with Apple and professional audio. Standard AIFF is commonly used for uncompressed PCM audio.
AIFF and PCM
Most ordinary AIFF music files contain uncompressed PCM samples, which makes AIFF conceptually similar to WAV in everyday use. The file also stores technical parameters and can carry metadata.
What is AIFF-C?
AIFF-C is a compressed-capable extension of AIFF. That is why “AIFF always means uncompressed PCM” is a useful rule of thumb for ordinary files but not a universal statement about the entire family.
AIFF vs WAV
| Property | AIFF | WAV |
|---|---|---|
| Heritage | Apple / interchange and production | Microsoft/IBM RIFF ecosystem |
| Typical audio | PCM | PCM, but WAVE can describe many encodings |
| Endian convention | Historically big-endian PCM is common | Little-endian PCM is common |
| Quality | Depends on the stored PCM | Depends on the stored PCM |
Lossless PCM of the same sample values is not made better or worse merely because it is wrapped in AIFF instead of WAV.
Common confusion
AIFF file size is mainly determined by sample rate × sample precision × channel count × duration when storing uncompressed PCM. The extension is not a quality score.