Overview: Audio formats and codecs

Audio formats and codecs represent sound through different coding methods and compatibility requirements.

LPCM and DSD describe different signal representations. Compressed formats then make their own choices about data reduction, reconstruction and intended use. This group organizes the codec pages by those properties, providing a route from the source track's name to the decoding and output path it needs.

• Audio codecs explained
  An audio codec defines how sound is encoded and reconstructed for storage or delivery.

• Linear PCM (LPCM)
  Linear PCM represents digital audio as regularly spaced sample values with uniform amplitude steps.

• Direct Stream Digital (DSD)
  Direct Stream Digital represents audio using a high-rate one-bit stream rather than conventional multibit linear PCM samples.

• Lossy audio codecs
  Lossy audio codecs reduce data through coding choices that do not preserve every original signal value.

• Lossless audio codecs
  Lossless audio codecs reconstruct their defined source signal while using format-specific packing and decoding methods.

• Speech audio codecs
  Speech codecs organize audio coding around the characteristics and delivery requirements of spoken sound.