WV file format (.wv)

What is a WV file?

In short: A WV file (.wv) is an audio file in the WV format. WavPack compresses losslessly, and it can also produce a hybrid file: a small lossy version plus a correction file that restores the original exactly. It can be converted to MP3, WAV or FLAC for free in a web browser with iHateFiles, without uploading it.

WavPack, created by David Bryant in 1998.

WavPack compresses losslessly, and it can also produce a hybrid file: a small lossy version plus a correction file that restores the original exactly. That lets one archive serve both portable listening and full quality, which nothing else does quite the same way.

What WV is good at

• Lossless, with an unusual hybrid mode
• Handles very high sample rates and channel counts
• Open and actively maintained

Where WV falls short

• Limited player support
• The hybrid mode means two files to keep together
• FLAC won the lossless audience

When to use WV

Convert WV to FLAC for compatibility, unless you are specifically using the hybrid mode.

How to open a WV file

Foobar2000, VLC and dedicated players.

The thing that usually goes wrong

If you have a .wv and a .wvc, the second is the correction file. Without it you have only the lossy version.

Inside a WV file

WavPack has a feature no other lossless format matches: hybrid mode. It can split a recording into a small lossy file that plays on its own, plus a correction file that restores it to bit-perfect lossless when the two are recombined. You can carry the small one and keep the pair archived.

It is also unusually tolerant of what you feed it — 32-bit floating point audio, DSD, and multichannel material all survive intact, where several competitors quietly convert or refuse. That combination has kept a small, committed following since 1998 without ever threatening FLAC.