Illustrate.dBpowerampAACiTunesEncoder R3

dBpoweramp Codec Central: m4a (Apple Lossless & AAC)

Successor to mp3, m4a was championed by iTunes, .m4a is used for audio, whilst .mp4 is for video. Internally m4a can store many sub-formats: - Apples Lossless (know also as ALAC or ALE) this format is like Zip for audio, no audio quality is lost, audio decompresses identical to the source. - Advanced Audio Compression (AAC), is a lossy compression like mp3, audio quality is sacrificed to gain smaller file sizes. There are many types of AAC: LC (low complexity), HE (high efficiency), m4p (Apples encrypted). Currently audio purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store is lossy AAC.