M4A to WAV converter
Convert M4A to WAV in your browser. No upload and no account: the file never leaves your device, so the only size limit is your device’s memory.
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Every request this page makes is listed as it happens. You’ll see our own code loading, and for some formats a codec engine, but never your file going out.
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Check it yourself: open your browser’s developer tools on the Network tab, or turn off Wi-Fi once the page has loaded. The tools keep working.
Related conversions
Need it the other way round? Convert WAV to M4AConvert other formats to WAV
Read more about the M4A format and the WAV format, or see every audio tool and all audio conversions.
Should you convert M4A to WAV?
Transcription services, DAWs and phone systems often require WAV. Convert Voice Memos and iTunes audio to uncompressed WAV.
Only when software insists on WAV. It stores the decoded M4A perfectly, but the detail the M4A discarded is already gone, so the WAV is bigger without sounding better.
WAV also plays in more places: every computer, audio editor and DAW, and most phones.
M4A is AAC audio in an MP4 container, Apple’s everyday audio format; WAV is uncompressed, studio-quality audio. Use WAV while editing and for systems that demand it, such as phone systems, samplers and some broadcast tools.
How to convert M4A to WAV
- 01
Add your M4A
Drop your M4A file onto the box, or click to choose it. It is read from your disk and stays there.
- 02
Check the settings
The output is already set to WAV. Change the bitrate if you want to; the defaults suit most files.
- 03
Save the WAV
Press convert and save the WAV. Several files come back together as a ZIP.
What changes when M4A becomes WAV
Bigger, not better
WAV can’t restore what M4A compression removed. It does make editing easier and stops further loss, which is why editors and some broadcast systems ask for it.
Expect a much larger file
WAV is far bigger for the same content. Choose it because something needs WAV, not to send or store the file. M4A: About 1 MB a minute at 128 kbps. WAV: About 10 MB a minute at CD quality.
This page is put together from our notes on each format, choosing only what is true of M4A and WAV, so every pairing states the same facts the same way. How these pages are made.
Why it doesn’t upload
Recordings are often private: interviews, voice notes, unreleased music. Your browser can decode and encode audio itself, so there is no reason to send it anywhere.
How to check for yourselfWorth knowing
- About the M4A. An .m4a can also hold lossless ALAC audio, several times larger; the extension alone doesn’t tell you which.
- About the WAV. A WAV made from an MP3 is ten times bigger but sounds exactly like the MP3; the lost detail doesn’t come back.
- MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG, Opus and FLAC are converted by your browser directly. WMA, AMR, APE, AC3 and the other specialist formats use the FFmpeg engine, a one-time 31 MB download.
Questions
Does converting M4A to WAV lose quality?
No quality is lost converting to WAV, though it can’t restore what the M4A already discarded.
Will a WAV play in my car or on my phone?
WAV opens everywhere: every computer, audio editor and DAW, and most phones.
Read more about this
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