Requirements: OS X 10.12+
, 89.21MB free space
Version 8.12(3287) (9 Jan, 2023) Release notes
You’re likely already familiar with the two most popular music players on macOS: Apple Music and QuickTime. They’re both adequate audio apps for listening to MP3 files. But what if you have playlists that include both WAV or MP3 files? Ignoring questions about MP3 vs WAV quality, for the time being, you want a music player that can make every playlist, regardless of file format, sound incredible.
When you play music on your Mac, you want an app that’s as easy to use as Spotify and SoundCloud. Elmedia Player offers seamless wireless connectivity, playlist creation, and management and supports all audio file formats to be your WAV files player of choice on Mac. Elmedia Player makes listening to music on macOS easy while still delivering powerful playback and customization.
1. Use the free, official website to download Elmedia and follow the instructions to install.
2. You can build and manage playlists or instant-play your music by loading the files, whether WAV or MP3, in three ways:
Loading your music into Elmedia Player is just the beginning. The third-party app offers unique customizations, easy playlist creation and management, and advanced features for high-quality playback. Determine for yourself whether WAV vs MP3 sound quality is better when you use the most powerful audio player for macOS.
Most music listeners don’t care as much about the file format as they do the sound quality. When people build their music collection, they want to know the difference between MP3 and WAV regarding the availability of files, ease of playback, and quality of sound.
People often have questions about MP3 vs WAV because they are the two most common file formats for digital music worldwide. Before determining which is better, WAV or MP3, we’ll go over the benefits and downsides of both.
Whether you listen to music on iOS or macOS, you’ve likely encountered both file formats. Keep reading for the key differences between WAV and MP3.
WAV’s popularity isn’t surprising, given it’s one of the oldest formats for Hi-Res audio. Microsoft and IBM developers created WAV to preserve the original quality of audio recordings in a digital format. Apple also has a version of WAV for macOS called Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF). It uses the same process for storing audio files and converting audio signals into binary data for a computer to read.
Audio files stored in the WAV format offer a few unique benefits for music listeners.
In terms of popularity in digital music, there’s no competition between WAV vs. MP3. Most music bought online or downloaded from streaming services like Spotify is in MP3 format. Just like WAV, it’s one of the oldest formats out there.
The most significant difference between MP3 vs WAV is the compression of the files. The compression process eliminates extraneous data to create smaller file sizes, which can affect the WAV vs MP3 sound quality.
There are a few reasons MP3 is the most widespread audio file format today:
For fast, easy music sharing, whether WAV or MP3 is better is clear: smaller is critical. When you’re streaming on Spotify, downloading entire albums, or sharing songs with friends, the faster, the better, making MP3’s small file size has a clear advantage.
But if WAV vs MP3 sound quality matters to you more, there are real downsides to compressing files. If you have high-quality speakers or headphones, you may notice minor distortions in playback or a difference from the richness of the original recording.
Further, if you’re doing any recording, editing, or mixing of tracks, compressed files like MP3 aren’t an option. Deciding which is better, WAV or MP3, often comes down to user priority–smaller file size or superior sound quality.
As with any file format, there are some downsides to storing your entire music library as WAV. The most common ones that users contend with are:
The quick answer is, it depends. Listeners who only use their computer’s built-in speakers or the headphones that come standard with iOS devices won’t notice a difference in WAV vs. MP3 sound quality. Some professional musicians and musical artists may have highly trained ears that can detect the missing data from MP3 files. Still, for general listeners, the difference is negligible.
WAV isn’t the only uncompressed file format available. FLAC files are also lossless and present many of the same benefits and downsides as WAV. If you’re considering FLAC vs MP3 for your musical library, you don’t have to choose if you pick the right music player. Elmedia Player lets you listen to WAV, FLAC, AIFF, and MP3––all in a single playlist.
Many macOS users never have to consider the differences between MP3 and WAV because they use native apps that don’t support the Windows-based format. But using Elmedia Player not only lets you play WAV files on Mac, but it also supports almost every audio format in existence. You never have to worry about error messages or distortion with Elmedia, and it’s compatible with even the latest versions of macOS.
Change your music-listening experience on macOS but using a third-party app like Elmedia Player. You can collect a more extensive music library with diverse file formats and listen to them with superior support from the 10-band equalizer. Elmedia Player supports wireless connectivity to your other iOS devices like iPhone and iPad or high-quality speakers and headphones.
We love Elmedia Player as a Mac music player because it makes music listening easy and fun, whether you choose WAV or MP3 files as your preferred format.