Understanding Audio Compression
WAV (Waveform Audio File Format) is an exact digital copy of the source sound. It's uncompressed, meaning it stores every single sample of audio data. This makes it perfect for recording and editing but terrible for storage and sharing.
MP3 uses perceptual coding. It analyzes the audio and removes data that the human ear is less likely to hear (like quiet sounds masked by louder ones). At high settings like 320kbps, this removal is so subtle that it is often imperceptible, yet it reduces the file size by nearly 90%.
