AAC file format
| File extension | .aac |
| File category | audio |
| Programs | Microsoft Windows Media Player VLC media player MPlayer Foobar2000 Winamp Apple iTunes Audacity |
| Description | A proprietary format with lossy compression, which have been created as an alternative for MP3 with a higher quality of coding. Overtones out of human perception are being removed. AAC is two times less than MP3, which means 1/10 of CD digital data. The format has been widely used since 1997 as the seventh release of the MPEG-2 family. As hardware players supply it, the format is highly demanded by music fans. It has been widely spread in Apple production and is being used by default in iTunes. |
| Technical details | The format conception is similar to MP3, but it is more advanced. Being able to execute larger compression, it is represented as a separate segment of MPEG-4 standard used to create compact audio files. AAC is highly efficient with variable and continuous bitrate, with a sampling frequency of 8-96 kHz. The current version complies with the standard of ISO/IEC 14496-3. Compression is performed based on an auditory masking effect that provides data reduction with no deterioration for sound quality. |
| MIME type | audio/aac audio/aacp audio/3gpp audio/3gpp2 audio/mp4 audio/mp4a-latm audio/mpeg4-generic audio/x-aac audio/x-m4a audio/x-m4p audio/x-m4b audio/mp4a audio/mpga |