The Monkey's Audio encoder is free, but not open source, hence the format doesn’t enjoy a very wide player support. On the other hand, APE may take longer to decompress, as that’s a very CPU-intensive process, and if an APE music file is partially corrupted, the data that is left cannot be played.
This is better than FLAC, another lossless format, which achieves a 30-50% compression. Besides the audio, APE also features error detection and tag support, storing details about the audio tracks.Ĭompressing music using Monkey's Audio results in a 50% decrease in file size as compared to the original uncompressed one. In other words, if a CD is damaged, you can use your first-generation digital APE copy to perfectly restore your music. This means that APE audio files preserve and reproduce the original sound during playback. Unlike lossy file formats, APE doesn’t sacrifice any audio data during compression. The APE file extension stands for Monkey's Audio, a lossless audio format by a company bearing the same name.
