Apple made headlines in mid-2021 when it announced its Apple Music service would offer lossless audio in June of that year. The audio upgrade would be available to users at no extra cost, but some users didn’t fully understand the benefit of lossless audio, especially after years of digital music that sounded perfectly acceptable.

苹果公司在2021年年中宣布其苹果音乐服务将于同年6月提供无损音频，这一消息一度成为头条新闻。用户可以免费获得音频升级，但一些用户并不完全理解无损音频的好处，特别是在多年来听起来完全可以接受的数字音乐之后。

For decades, digital media has been dominated by the MP3 format. MP3 was originally created as a way to provide a decent audio experience at a time when internet speeds were far slower than they are today. As a result, MP3s traded audio quality for smaller file sizes, attempting to strike a balance between the two.

几十年来，数字媒体一直以MP3格式为主。MP3最初是为了在互联网速度远低于今天的时候提供一种良好的音频体验而创建的。因此，MP3以音频质量换取较小的文件大小，并尽量在两者之间保持平衡。

With the advent of faster internet speeds, however, the industry is not hampered by the same limitations as in the past. This has enabled companies like Apple, Amazon, and Tidal to offer truly lossless audio.

然而，随着网速的提高，互联网行业不再像过去那样受到限制。这使得像苹果、亚马逊和潮汐这样的公司能够提供真正的无损音频。

As the name implies, lossless audio merely refers to formats that preserve the quality of the original audio, not sacrificing it for the sake of smaller file sizes. In fact, modern lossless formats now provide audio quality that rivals and surpasses CD quality.

顾名思义，无损音频是指保存原始音频质量的格式，而不是为了更小的文件大小而牺牲品质。事实上，现代无损格式现在提供的音质可以与CD相媲美，甚至超越CD。

In spite of this, that doesn’t mean all lossless audio formats are massive in size. Some formats offer compression, while still maintaining the lossless audio quality.

尽管如此，这并不意味着所有无损音频格式都是巨大的。一些格式经过压缩，同时仍然保持无损音频质量。

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec ) and ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec ) are two of the most common compressed, lossless formats. Because FLAC is open source, it holds the distinction of being the most widely used . FLAC offers audio resolution up to 32-bit and 96 kHz, providing better quality than a CD.

FLAC(免费无损音频编解码器)和ALAC(苹果无损音频编解码器)是两种最常见的无损压缩格式。因为FLAC是开源的，所以它是使用最广泛的。FLAC提供了32位和96千赫的音频分辨率，提供了比CD更好的质量。

ALAC is also very popular, thanks to being Apple’s audio format of choice. The company created the format for use in its Apple Music platform and promises that “Apple Music subscribers will be able to hear the exact same thing that the artists created in the studio.”

ALAC也很受欢迎，因为它是苹果选择的音频格式。苹果公司为其苹果音乐平台创建了这种格式，并承诺“苹果音乐的订户将能够听到艺术家在录音棚中创作的完全相同的东西。”

Regardless of which format a platform uses, lossless audio should provide a clear improvement over MP3 and other lossy formats of old.

无论平台使用哪种格式，无损音频都应该比MP3和其他旧的有损格式有明显的改进。