B &W Bowers & Wilkins

Why sound matters

Lossless audio formats store the data that is captured during a sound recording in such a way that no degradation occurs after the final studio mastering of the material. That means the sound recordings we provide contain all the detail, all the expression and all the ambience that are ignored by lossy formats such as MP3. Listen and you’ll see.


We currently offer the following lossless file formats:

FLAC files

Studio master sound quality (24bit 48KHz)
These are the highest quality files we offer and are identical to the studio master. They work like zip files so the size is compressed but none of the sound quality. Unfortunately iTunes and Windows Media Player don’t accept these files yet but many others do.

The most popular program which supports FLAC is Winamp. Winamp can be downloaded free from www.winamp.com in a fairly small file. You can also download a codec which will allow Windows Media Player to play FLAC files from www.xiph.org/dshow

If you are a Mac user you can convert them using MAX sbooth.org/Max

CD quality (16bit 44.1KHz)
These files are not as big as the 24bit files but still of excellent sound quality and would sound the same as the equivalent CD bought in a shop.
 

ALAC files

CD quality (16bit 44.1KHz)
These are developed by Apple and only compatible on iTunes. They are exactly the same sound quality as the 16bit FLAC files.


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