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M4A to WAV Converter

Convert your M4A files to WAV format. Private — converted on your device.

Processed on your device — files never leave your machine

Drop your M4A file here or click to browse

Converted on your device — files never uploaded

How to Convert M4A to WAV

  1. 1 Upload your M4A file
  2. 2 Converted on your device — files never uploaded
  3. 3 Download your WAV file

M4A to WAV: uncompressed audio for editors and samplers

Audio editors, samplers, DJ hardware and CD-burning programs that will not open an M4A almost always take WAV. Converting gets a phone recording, a GarageBand export or a track from your library into that kind of tool.

The file is decoded on your device and written as PCM WAV, and mono recordings stay mono. What the WAV holds depends on what the M4A held. From AAC, the WAV is a 16-bit copy of the decoded audio: no further lossy encoding, and nothing the AAC encoder discarded comes back. From Apple Lossless, nothing is lost to compression and the bit depth is kept, 16-bit as 16-bit and 24-bit as 24-bit, but a low-level dither is added, so the WAV is not a bit-for-bit copy.

Expect a much larger file: 16-bit stereo at 44.1 kHz runs at 1,411 kbps, about 5.5 times a 256 kbps M4A. Title, artist and artwork are not carried into the WAV. Inputs longer than 30 minutes, or too large to decode in your device's memory (less on a phone or tablet), are refused, and protected .m4p files are not supported.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is M4A or WAV better quality?
WAV is a lossless format while M4A (usually AAC) is lossy. Converting to WAV adds no further compression loss, but cannot recover quality lost during the original M4A compression.
Will I lose quality converting M4A to WAV?
No further compression loss — the WAV file holds the decoded audio of your M4A as PCM: 16-bit for a lossy or 16-bit source and 24-bit for a deeper one, with a low-level dither.
How long does conversion take?
Seconds for most files. Conversion runs entirely on your device — no upload wait, no server queue. Files up to 30 minutes long are supported.
Does an AAC M4A sound better after converting to WAV?
No. The WAV step adds no compression, but it cannot restore what the AAC encoder removed. From Apple Lossless no detail is lost to compression; the dithered WAV is still not a bit-for-bit copy.
Will a 24-bit Apple Lossless file stay 24-bit?
Yes. A source deeper than 16 bits is written as a 24-bit WAV at its own sample rate, with a dither at the 24-bit level. Tick 32-bit float WAV to keep the decoded samples as floats instead.
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