AIFF and Opus explained
AIFF is Apple's uncompressed audio format, functionally equivalent to WAV but with better metadata support and big-endian byte order.
Opus is the current state of the art for lossy audio, and the codec behind most voice calls you make over the internet. It performs well across an unusually wide range, from 6 kbps speech to transparent music.
- Where AIFF files come from
- Mac audio production and older Apple software.
- Where Opus is used
- Voice and video calls, modern podcast pipelines and WebRTC.