About this tool
Voice memos and recordings from iPhones and Macs arrive as M4A, which audio editors, transcription tools, samplers, and phone systems often refuse. Converting to WAV produces uncompressed 16-bit PCM that every program on earth can load, without any further quality loss.
About the formats: M4A is AAC audio inside an MP4 container, Apple's default for Voice Memos, iTunes purchases, and many recording apps. Quality is excellent, but plenty of players and web forms only accept MP3. WAV stores uncompressed PCM audio: perfect quality, but around 10 MB per minute. It is the format audio editors, samplers, and studios expect.
M4A and WAV, side by side
| .m4a in | .wav out | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy (AAC) or lossless (ALAC) | None |
| Typical size | 1 MB per minute | 10 MB per minute (CD quality) |
| Plays on | Apple, Android, browsers | Everything |
| Best for | Voice memos, music from Apple | Editing, samples, masters |
Rows where the two differ are marked. The full story on each: M4A files and WAV files.
How to use it
- Drop your M4A or AAC files into the box above, or click to browse. Nothing is uploaded.
- Click Convert to WAV and wait a moment.
- Download the results individually or all at once as a ZIP.
Questions
Does M4A to WAV improve the audio?
No. It decodes the AAC exactly as a player would and stores the result uncompressed. Quality is identical to playback; the file is just much larger.
Why is my WAV so big?
WAV is uncompressed: about 10 MB per minute of stereo audio. That is the price of universal compatibility and lossless editing.
Is it free, are files uploaded, which browsers work: the general questions are answered once for the whole site.