Step 1: Share your AIFF files using the button above or by drag and drop.
Step 2: Click the 'Transform' button to start the transformation.
Step 3: Grab your converted FLAC files.
AIFF to FLAC Transformation FAQ
How do I convert AIFF audio to FLAC without losing quality?
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Upload the AIFF file and the converter chooses the FLAC codec and bitrate to match the source. Lossless FLAC (WAV / FLAC / ALAC) preserves every sample bit-identically; lossy FLAC (MP3 / AAC / OGG / Opus) defaults to 192 kbps which is transparent for most ears. AIFF stores uncompressed big-endian PCM — the Apple-side equivalent of WAV, with the same bit-for-bit fidelity. FLAC uses linear prediction plus Rice coding to reach roughly 50-60% of the original size while decoding back to bit-identical PCM.
Is AIFF to FLAC genuinely lossless?
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Yes. Both formats keep every sample, so decoding the FLAC returns a bit-identical copy of the audio inside the AIFF. Nothing is quantised, nothing is discarded, and the conversion can be repeated indefinitely without accumulating artefacts. What changes is the file size and which software will open it.
What bitrate will the resulting FLAC file use?
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Default is 192 kbps for lossy FLAC; pass-through for lossless FLAC. Override to 320 kbps for audiophile or 96 kbps for voice / podcast. The choice trades file size against audible fidelity; below 96 kbps lossy artifacts become noticeable on music.
Will going from AIFF to FLAC reduce my audio quality?
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If AIFF is lossy and FLAC is lossless (e.g. MP3 → WAV), the FLAC is no better than the AIFF — you cannot recover information already discarded. If AIFF is lossless and FLAC is lossy, the FLAC codec recompresses; at 192 kbps the result is transparent for most content.
Does the AIFF to FLAC converter keep ID3 / metadata tags?
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Yes — title, artist, album, year, track number, and album art are read from the AIFF container and written into the FLAC container where the format supports tags. All common targets (MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG) handle tags fine; raw WAV does not. FLAC is the Free Lossless Audio Codec, an open format from 2001 that compresses without discarding a single sample.
Can I batch convert hundreds of AIFF files to FLAC?
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Yes — drop a folder of AIFF files in and we process them in parallel. Premium has more parallel workers and no per-file size cap, so a 500-file batch finishes in minutes rather than tens of minutes.
Will the FLAC keep the same sample rate as AIFF?
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By default yes — 48 kHz AIFF stays 48 kHz in FLAC. If you need to downsample for compatibility (96 kHz → 44.1 kHz for CD burning), the sample-rate option applies high-quality resampling in the same encode pass.
Can I normalize loudness when converting AIFF to FLAC?
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Yes — the loudness-normalize option applies ITU-R BS.1770 / EBU R128 normalization to the FLAC, targeting -14 LUFS (streaming standard) or -16 LUFS (podcast standard). Useful when batching tracks mastered at varying levels.
Will my FLAC play on car stereo, iPod, and Sonos?
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MP3 plays everywhere. AAC plays on Apple, most Android, and Sonos. FLAC plays on Sonos and Android but not on older iPods. WAV plays on everything but is huge. The advanced device-preset dropdown picks a FLAC codec optimized for your target hardware. FLAC gives you WAV fidelity at half the size, with proper metadata tags and embedded artwork, which is why it dominates lossless music libraries. FLAC is still several times larger than a good lossy file, and Apple’s ecosystem only added support recently and grudgingly.
Is my AIFF file private during conversion to FLAC?
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Yes — uploaded AIFF files are processed in isolated workers and deleted within minutes. We never play back, store long-term, or share the audio content. The full retention window is in /privacy/.
How long does converting a 1-hour AIFF to FLAC take?
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Same-codec re-mux: 10 to 30 seconds. Re-encode to a different codec: typically 10 to 20% of source duration, so a 1-hour AIFF → FLAC finishes in 6 to 12 minutes. Batch jobs parallelize across workers for further speedups.
Why is the FLAC louder or quieter than the AIFF source?
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No automatic gain change happens unless you enable the normalize option. If you observe a level change, your audio player or media library is likely applying ReplayGain or per-track normalization on playback — not us. Disable that to hear the true FLAC levels.
