Convert AIFC to AAC — Free Online Converter

AIFC (AIFF-C) is Apple's compressed variant of the Audio Interchange File Format, supporting codecs like IMA ADPCM, MACE 3:1/6:1, u-law, A-law, and uncompressed PCM. It was the standard compressed audio format on classic Mac OS and NeXTSTEP before AAC and MP3 became dominant. Most modern audio software cannot open AIFC files, making them effectively trapped in legacy archives.

AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) is the successor to MP3 and the default lossy audio codec across Apple devices, YouTube, Android, and all major streaming platforms. Converting AIFC to AAC modernizes legacy Apple audio into a universally playable format with excellent quality-to-size ratio. At 256 kbps, AAC delivers perceptually transparent audio from a clean PCM or ADPCM source.

AIFC has virtually no playback support on any modern platform — you cannot open AIFC files on an iPhone, in a web browser, or on Android without specialized software. AAC, by contrast, plays natively on every Apple device, every Android device, and in every modern browser. Converting AIFC to AAC makes your legacy Mac audio accessible everywhere.

For AIFC files containing uncompressed PCM, the conversion to AAC achieves roughly 80% file size reduction at 256 kbps with virtually no audible quality loss. Even AIFC files using MACE compression benefit from the conversion, since AAC's psychoacoustic model is vastly superior to the crude waveform coding in MACE 3:1 or 6:1.