WAV to M4A converter
Convert WAV to M4A 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 M4A to WAVConvert other formats to M4A
Read more about the WAV format and the M4A format, or see every audio tool and all audio conversions.
Should you convert WAV to M4A?
You want small, great-sounding audio for Apple devices, podcasts or voice messages from a big WAV file.
A good trade for listening and sharing: M4A is a fraction of the size of WAV, and at 192 kbps or more the difference is inaudible for most people. Keep the WAV as your master if you’ll edit or convert again.
WAV is uncompressed, studio-quality audio; M4A is AAC audio in an MP4 container, Apple’s everyday audio format. Use M4A for music and recordings on Apple devices, or anywhere AAC is accepted and size matters.
How to convert WAV to M4A
- 01
Add your WAV
Drop your WAV 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 M4A. Change the bitrate if you want to; the defaults suit most files.
- 03
Save the M4A
Press convert and save the M4A. Several files come back together as a ZIP.
What changes when WAV becomes M4A
From lossless to lossy
WAV holds every sample; M4A keeps what the ear notices and discards the rest. Pick the bitrate by use: 128 kbps for speech, 192 to 256 kbps for music.
Expect a much smaller file
WAV: About 10 MB a minute at CD quality. M4A: About 1 MB a minute at 128 kbps. Shrinking the file is often the main reason to make this conversion.
This page is put together from our notes on each format, choosing only what is true of WAV and M4A, 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 WAV. A WAV made from an MP3 is ten times bigger but sounds exactly like the MP3; the lost detail doesn’t come back.
- About the M4A. An .m4a can also hold lossless ALAC audio, several times larger; the extension alone doesn’t tell you which.
- 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 WAV to M4A lose quality?
M4A is lossy, so a little is discarded, but at the default bitrate the difference is inaudible for nearly everyone.
Will an M4A play in my car or on my phone?
M4A opens almost everywhere: Apple devices, Android, browsers and most players; some older car stereos, Windows apps and forms refuse it.
Read more about this
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