LPAC is a codec (coder / decoder) for lossless compression of digital audio files. "Lossless" means that any compressed file can be decompressed in a way it will be bit-wise identical with the original. This is the main advantage of LPAC compared to lossy formats like MP3, WMA or RealAudio. On the other hand, lossy codecs can achieve higher compression ratios. For example, MP3 at 128 kbit/s achieves a (fixed) compression ratio of 11, whereas LPAC's compression ratios range from 1.5 to 4, strongly depending on the audio material. Typically they are around 2 for pop music and 2.5 for classical music. This may not seem much, but remember you will get back every single bit, no matter how often you subsequently compress and decompress a file. It is true that general archivers (Zip, LZH, gzip) are lossless, too, but they often achieve nearly no compression on audio files.

LPAC is your choice if you want to save disk space without any quality drawbacks introduced by lossy codecs like MP3. The LPAC file format (*.PAC) is designed to be compatible and lossless across different platforms and processors. Using Windows, you can play your compressed songs using the Winamp plug-in. LPAC is also supported by ExactAudioCopy.