SHN vs WV
A detailed comparison of Shorten Audio and WavPack Audio — file size, quality, compatibility, and which format to choose for your workflow.
Shorten Audio
Audio FilesShorten (SHN) is one of the earliest lossless audio compression formats, developed by Tony Robinson. It was widely used in the live music trading community for sharing concert recordings before FLAC became the dominant lossless format.
About SHN filesWavPack Audio
Audio FilesWavPack is an open-source audio codec that offers lossless, lossy, and hybrid compression modes. Its unique hybrid mode creates a lossy file plus a correction file that together reconstruct the original, enabling flexible storage strategies.
About WV filesStrengths Comparison
SHN Strengths
- Lossless.
- Historical artifact of 1990s music trading.
- Modern decoder availability.
WV Strengths
- Hybrid lossy/lossless mode.
- Supports DSD, 32-bit float, multichannel.
- Competitive compression vs FLAC.
- Active maintenance since 1998.
Limitations
SHN Limitations
- Historically royalty-encumbered.
- Obsolete for new recordings.
- FLAC offers better compression.
WV Limitations
- Small ecosystem.
- Hybrid mode complexity.
- Hardware support limited vs FLAC.
Technical Specifications
| Specification | SHN | WV |
|---|---|---|
| MIME type | audio/x-shorten | audio/x-wavpack |
| Extension | .shn | .wv (main), .wvc (correction) |
| Algorithm | Linear prediction + Rice coding | — |
| Successor | FLAC | — |
| Modes | — | Lossless, Hybrid lossy+correction, 32-bit float |
| License | — | BSD-style |
Typical File Sizes
SHN
- Full concert recording 300-500 MB
WV
- 3-min song (CD lossless) 18-24 MB
- 3-min hi-res 24/96 60-90 MB
Ready to convert?
Convert between SHN and WV online, free, and without installing anything. Encrypted upload, automatic deletion after 2 hours.
Frequently Asked Questions
SHN (Shorten Audio) is an audio file format used to store sound recordings — music, voice, podcasts, sound effects. The format defines how the audio samples are compressed (or stored raw), what bitrates are supported, and how metadata such as title, artist, album, and cover art is embedded. It is part of the audio files family.
WV (WavPack Audio) is an audio file format used to store sound recordings — music, voice, podcasts, sound effects. The format defines how the audio samples are compressed (or stored raw), what bitrates are supported, and how metadata such as title, artist, album, and cover art is embedded. It is part of the audio files family.
VLC, foobar2000, and the default media players on Windows and macOS handle SHN natively. On mobile, iOS Music and Android media apps vary in their support — popular formats work everywhere; niche ones may need a dedicated app. If playback fails on a device, converting to MP3 or AAC usually solves it.
VLC, foobar2000, and the default media players on Windows and macOS handle WV natively. On mobile, iOS Music and Android media apps vary in their support — popular formats work everywhere; niche ones may need a dedicated app. If playback fails on a device, converting to MP3 or AAC usually solves it.
Upload the SHN to KaijuConverter and pick MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, or any other target. Our FFmpeg pipeline decodes the audio and re-encodes to the target format at sensible default bitrates (VBR ~190 kbps for music, 96 kbps for speech). Metadata and cover art travel with the audio where both formats support them.
SHN can be lossy or lossless depending on the specific variant. Lossy variants (smaller files) discard some audio detail during compression in ways tuned to be inaudible; lossless variants preserve every sample exactly but produce larger files. For distribution, lossy at high bitrate is standard; for archival, lossless wins.