FLAC vs M4A

[dypsis]

I have been ripping to FLAC for years, but I have recently been reading a bit about M4A.

There seems to be a lot of confusion and conflicting information out there about the M4A format.
I have seen some say it is lossy, and some say it is lossless.

If M4A truly is lossless, then that would make FLAC a redundant format given the fact that M4A tracks are roughly the same size as MP3, which is a lot smaller than FLAC.

So, can someone shine some light on my queries about the M4A format? Is it a lossless format, and is the sound quality as good as FLAC?

[Spoon]

Re: FLAC vs M4A

M4a is a container, it can contain Apple Lossless, or AAC (which is lossy)

If your track is the same size as mp3, then it is an aac file and is lossy.

[dypsis]

Re: FLAC vs M4A

Thanks for the simple answer, Spoon.
I just noticed that some M4A tracks from iTunes were of similar size to MP3s, so I guess it is an AAC (LC) lossy file.