About TTA Files
True Audio Lossless
TTA (True Audio) is an open-source lossless audio codec that provides real-time lossless compression with hardware-friendly decoding. It achieves compression ratios similar to FLAC while maintaining very low CPU requirements during playback.
Family
Audio Files
Extension
.tta
MIME Type
audio/x-tta
Can Use As
HOW TTA
CAME TO BE.
TTA — True Audio — was released in 2002 by Russian developer Alexander Djourik as a simple, fast lossless audio codec. Unlike FLAC’s sophisticated linear prediction, TTA uses a straightforward approach: fixed-order prediction plus adaptive Rice coding. The result compresses 35-45% of WAV size (less than FLAC’s typical 50-60%) but decodes extremely fast with trivial memory footprint.
TTA found its home in embedded devices and budget portable players from the 2000s — Cowon and iRiver units shipped TTA decoders because the algorithm fit in small RAM budgets. Cue-sheet support made it popular for archiving whole CDs as single-track TTAs. FLAC eventually outpaced TTA in adoption, but the format remains stable and open-source (GPL reference implementation).
CURIOSITIES &
TRIVIA.
TTA decodes faster than FLAC on slow CPUs — a key advantage for 2000s-era portable players.
The reference TTA library is under 50 KB compiled — tiny enough for embedded firmware.
Cowon iAUDIO and iRiver H300 series shipped TTA decoders built into their firmware.
TTA supports cue sheets natively — archive a whole CD as one .tta file with track boundaries.
The format is open-source (LGPL) and has seen zero format breakage since 2002.
STRENGTHS &
LIMITATIONS.
Strengths
- Lossless bit-exact reproduction.
- Fast, low-memory decoding.
- Open-source reference.
- Cue-sheet support.
Limitations
- Compression ratio worse than FLAC.
- Niche tooling.
- Hardware support died with 2000s DAP era.
- Eclipsed by FLAC.
Typical Sizes & Weights
3-min song (CD)
20-25 MB
Full CD album
250-350 MB
Technical Specifications
- MIME type
- audio/x-tta
- Extension
- .tta
- Algorithm
- Fixed prediction + adaptive Rice coding
- License
- LGPL
CONVERT FROM
TTA
Common Use Cases
Lossless music archiving, low-CPU-usage playback, portable audio players
Related Formats
Popular comparisons
TTA vs MP3
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
TTA vs WAV
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
TTA vs FLAC
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
TTA vs AAC
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
TTA vs M4A
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
TTA vs OGG
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
Popular TTA conversions
The most-requested destinations when starting from TTA.
Frequently Asked Questions about TTA
Frequently Asked Questions
TTA (True Audio Lossless) 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 TTA 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 TTA 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.
TTA 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.