How Good Is WMA Lossless?

Compression codecs affect audio file size and quality. WMA Lossless compresses audio data without losing information, but how good is the compression efficiency and quality of the codec?

WMA Lossless compares favorably with other lossless compression codecs like FLAC and ALAC and is superior to lossy encoders. Despite having a lower compression efficiency than FLAC and ALAC, WMA Lossless produces virtually indistinguishable audio quality from these and other lossless encoders.

Understanding how WMA Lossless operates is valuable for maximizing the potential file storage and sound quality benefits the codec offers. Anyone unfamiliar with WMA Lossless and the quality of audio it can produce might benefit from considering the following information and insights.

WMA Lossless Is Good

In general, the WMA (Windows Media Audio) Lossless codec is good. WMA Lossless offers a favorable balance between quality and file size and will meet the audio compression, storage, and quality needs of most listeners.

Unlike lossy encoders, WMA Lossless does not lose aurally significant audio data during the compression process. For this reason, WMA Lossless provides superior sound quality than lossy compression codecs like MP3 and AAC, but in larger files. The difference in audio quality is not significant except at lower bit rates.

WMA Lossless has comparable quality to other lossless encoders like ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) and FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). It is difficult to distinguish between the audio quality of WMA Lossless and analogous codecs, even when listening on premium speakers or headphones.

WMA Lossless also measures up well against uncompressed file formats like WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) and AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format).

These container formats typically hold Linear Pulse-Code Modulation (LPCM) audio data. Though the sound quality of WMA Lossless is slightly lower than WAV and AIFF, the encoder creates dramatically smaller files.

What Is WMA?

WMA Lossless is a proprietary audio codec from Microsoft that encodes data through lossless compression. The codec offers the highest sound quality of the available series of WMA encoders. WMA Lossless is ideal for audio archiving due to its quality and compression efficiency.

Microsoft developed WMA Lossless as part of a broader set of audio codecs, which includes:

  • WMA 9 โ€“ for lossy compression (roughly equivalent to MP3),
  • WMA 10 Pro โ€“ advanced version of lossy WMA (supports more channels and higher resolutions),
  • WMA 9 Voice โ€“ for voice recordings compressed at low bit rates,
  • WMA Lossless 9 โ€“ for lossless compression.

The data these WMA codecs encode gets held in Microsoft’s Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container under the .wma file name extension.

Microsoft released WMA 9 Lossless in 1999. The first version had a compression ratio of between 2:1 and 3:1.

Subsequent revisions offered enhanced compression capabilities to match high-performing lossless codecs like ALAC, FLAC, and Dolby TrueHD. WMA Lossless 9 currently provides a compression ratio of 1.7:1 to 3:1.

WMA 9 Lossless can handle six channels of high-quality 24B-bit, 96kHz6 audio data. The codec also has a dynamic range control setting so users can smooth out excessive volume differentials during compression.

How Does WMA Lossless Work (And Why Is It Good)?

The reason WMA Lossless produces high sound quality is due to the way the codec encodes audio data.

Lossless Compression

As its name indicates, the WMA Lossless codec encodes data through lossless compression.

Lossless compression is an algorithmic method for compressing digital data without losing essential information. This method is contrasted with lossy compression, which discards a portion of the source information.

In the case of audio data, lossless compression produces a new, smaller file with identical bits to the original. As a result, WMA Lossless also replicates the quality of the source audio.

For instance, WMA Lossless can compress the audio on compact discs to between 206MB and 411MB at 470 to 940 kbps.

The ability of the WMA Lossless codec to accurately replicate input data means it creates a new file that sounds just as good.

Variable Bit Rate

The audio quality of WMA Lossless files’ output is partly due to its application of the variable bit rate (VBR) method.

Files encoded with VBR have differential bit rates rather than one that is fixed (or constant). VBR encoding assigns bit rates on a file according to the complexity of each audio data segment.

The result is a more efficient and aesthetically favorable balance between file space and sound quality.

Comparing WMA Lossless To Other Compression Codecs

How does WMA Lossless compare to other encoders that perform lossless compression? Here is a brief comparison between WMA Lossless and some of the most commonly used lossless compression codecs.

WMA Lossless Vs. Lossless Codecs

The average listener will be unlikely to distinguish between WMA Lossless, FLAC, and ALAC. Nonetheless, there are some notable distinctions between these lossless audio encoders.

The compression efficiency of these lossless codecs is a crucial technical difference between WMA, ALAC, and FLAC.

Compared with FLAC and ALAC, WMA Lossless has a less efficient compression ratio. This ratio indicates the amount of gain the encoder reduces when signals exceed a specified amplitude. Of the three codecs, FLAC has superior compression efficiency and, as a result, produces the smallest files.

The varying compatibility of these lossless codecs is another difference worth considering.

As an open-source encoder, FLAC is more compatible than ALAC and WMA Lossless. In contrast, WMA Lossless is compatible with Windows OS specifically, while ALAC is an Apple codec that works primarily with the corporation’s software and hardware.

Dedicated music listeners also prefer ALAC and FLAC because the encoders allow the storage of audio file metadata. Unlike these encoders, WMA Lossless does not allow users to store file metadata such as track descriptions and music album covers.

WMA Lossless Vs. Lossy Codecs

While WMA Lossless faces robust competition from other lossless codecs, it is superior to lossy codecs like MP3 and AAC.

WMA Lossless offers higher audio quality than these lossy encoders. As noted earlier, lossy codecs remove bits from the input audio data during the compression procedure.

The loss of audio information through lossy compression means that MP3 and AAC files lose some finer subtleties that WMA Lossless retains. Lossy encoders also have less favorable signal-to-noise ratios and produce more compression sound artifacts than the WMA Lossless encoder.    

Note that the difference in sound quality between these codecs is not easily perceived unless the files have low bit rates or if one listens on professional speakers or headphones.

Operating Systems And Media Players For WMA Lossless

So, how does one play files encoded with the WMA Lossless codec?

Though the codec is not as widely compatible as other lossless encoders like FLAC, there is a relatively diverse range of options for playing WMA Lossless.

Microsoft OS

As one of Microsoft’s proprietary codecs, WMA Lossless is specially designed to be compatible with Windows OS and its related media player applications.

Most Windows-compatible media players can play WMA Lossless-encoded files. In addition to Windows Media Player, one can listen to WMA Lossless with commonly-used media players such as:

  • VLC Media Player,
  • Winamp,
  • RealPlayer.

macOS

WMA Lossless is not directly compatible with macOS, but the files are playable when using third-party software.

A Microsoft-endorsed software program called Flip4Mac was released in 2004 and allowed Mac users to play WMA Lossless files. The final release of Flip4Mac was in 2017, though, so this software is no longer available for purchase.

Mac users still have the option of playing WMA Lossless using one of numerous third-party digital media player programs:

  • Vidmore Player,
  • 5KPlayer,
  • Cisdem,
  • Elmedia Player.

Open-Source Operating Systems

There are also re-engineered versions of the WMA Lossless codec that are playable on open-source operating systems.

The open-source project FFmpeg created a version of WMA Lossless that is compatible with Linux and other open-source platforms.

Another project called Rockbox enhanced FFmpeg’s WMA Lossless version, so it plays on mobile phones and MP3 players equipped with open-source operating systems.

Android

WMA Lossless is not compatible with Android. Fortunately, there are third-party software programs that enable  Android users to listen to WMA Lossless-encoded files.

[ref7]Some of the most reputable third-party media player programs for listening to WMA Lossless on the Android operating system are:

  • VLC Media Player,
  • Poweramp,
  • Rocket Music Player.

Conclusion

WMA Lossless is an efficient lossless compression encoder that produces high audio quality. The audio quality of this Microsoft codec is superior to lossy encoders like MP3 and AAC (though it creates larger files).

WMA Lossless is comparable to other lossless codecs like FLAC and ALAC. The fidelity and clarity of WMA Lossless are virtually indistinguishable from these alternative lossless encoders (though its compression efficiency is slightly lower).

References

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