What is APE File and How to Open APE File

This is a world of the digit as everything is digital. Sometimes you see some files but you don't even know where they are from or even how to open them, especially when you are dealing with some files that are not very common in our daily lives. For example, the APE file. What is this APE file? Why is it on my computer? Or how do I open APE files? If you have ever wondered any of these questions, you are in the right place. Because we will introduce the APE file and how to open the APE file.

Part 1: About APE File

There are two possibilities for the identity of your APE file. The first kind of APE file is AVS Plugin Effects File. This APE file is a Component referenced by the Advanced Visualization Studio (AVS) plugin for Winamp. The file is mostly used for creating programmable visual animations based on the music played by Winamp. If you are using Advanced Visualization Studio for your work, then most likely this APE file is this kind of file. If you have not met this kind of file beforehand, you may wonder how to play AVS format files. To open this file, basically, you just need Nullsoft Winamp with the Advanced Visualization Studio plugin.

But this is not the only APE file, there is another kind of APE file, which is more commonly used that the first one. APE file sometimes means a kind of Monkey's Audio Lossless Audio File. This is an audio file compressed using Monkey's Audio lossless compression algorithm. APE audio files include error detection and support for tags that store information about audio files; sometimes created with CUE files to comprise an audio CD image. The Monkey's Audio encoder is freely available and can be incorporated into other software programs. That means APE files may be created with other programs besides Monkey's Audio.

However, this APE file is not of a popular compression format among all others like MP3 or AAC as only the minority are using Monkey's Audio software to get the audio format files. Because APE file format can cause no data loss while getting through the encoding process, it is not likely to be opened easily. So far, there are even just several programs can provide the decoding tasks of the APE file. Some of them can play the APE audio file for you, while others allow you to edit or add the APE file as a component for other projects.

Part 2: 3 Best APE Players for Windows

1. APE player

This program is designed specifically to open APE files. When you are looking for a standalone software and for free, this APE player application is what plays APE files smoothly on Windows. It can deal with a bunch of APE audio tracks on your Windows computer, the playlist of APE files can be created as long as you are enthusiastic with APE music files. While it provides the capability of decoding APE file format to more widely used WAV format files, the playback of APE format audios will be able to deliver in high quality. The interface is super neat, everything will be seen clearly. And It is totally free of charge, I will regard it as a small size of the handy tool that you can use to open APE files only.

2. Foobar 2000

This player program is extremely lightweight as an APE player. You can use the Foobar 2000 to playback all the music media data due to its powerful codec packs. Meanwhile, it enables users to enhance sound effects with multiple parameter settings during APE playback. The cool thing is, this freeware also integrates with the feature of converting music data into another sound format file. In addition, it is able to make your playlists easy to manage as it supports direct drag-in function. Then the playlists can be customized and saved to a list without limitations. Of course, the free open-source application allows you to add up more codec components while you have other requirements.

3. AIMP player

As lots of music players are trying to offer more features, this AIMP player ensures you with a massive number of features while obtaining the ability to open APE files without difficulties. The APE file seems to work flawlessly with its inbuilt decoder, as well as all other popular audio formats like MP3, AAC, FLAC, MAC, M3U, OPUS, RMI, TTA, WAV, Dolby AC-3, Ogg Vorbis, Speex, Windows Media Audio(WMA), Apple Lossless, and Audio CDs. Some of the other lossless audio formats are also well supported as its features indicate. There are still a couple of impressive functions offering the smart playlist manager, multi-audio conversion, powerful view systems, quick audio search, tag editor, auto shutdown scheduler, and so on.

Part 3: 3 Best APE Players for Mac

1. Leawo Blu-ray Player for Mac

Leawo Blu-ray Player is a free media player that fully supports almost all kinds of video and audio file like AAC, AC3, DTS, FLAC, M4A, MID, MKA, MP2 MP3, MPA, OGG, TTA, WAV, WMA, and mainly featuring APE files. You can totally use it as the best free MP3 player program. Not only that, Leawo Blu-ray Player can play all those video files without any quality loss and retain the best quality. As you can see from its name, The player is firstly designed to be a perfect solution for playing DVD and Blu-ray discs on PC, so Leawo Blu-ray Player can play all kinds of DVD or Blu-ray materials, including optimal discs, folders, and ISO image files. And it can play DVD on Mac or PC across the region, same for Blu-rays, which means just by installing Leawo Blu-ray Player, you can turn your PC into a region-free Blu-ray player with all the digital media formats support. It operates on both Mac and Windows system, so feel free to have it as one of the best music programs.

2. VLC Media Player

While everyone is using the VLC media player for playing videos most of the time, not too many users know that it can also open APE files at the same time. Yes, the universal VLC always updates its new usefulness for the coming formats in this digital world. Besides, the VLC is an open-source application running smoothly on Mac computers, which is similar to the Foobar 2000, you are allowed to install more codec packs onto the original media library. This is not what plays APE files only, other music audio formats are fully compatible with VLC such as AAC, AC3, ALAC, AMR, DTS, DV Audio, XM, FLAC, etc.

3. 5KPlayer

5KPlayer program is capable of playing the APE file in a stable solution on Mac systems. In general, it acts as a mixture of a video media player and an AirPlay-enabled streamer. For users who like to search and watch media contents online, this could be a decent choice. You can listen to the music tracks in no quality loss with the help of this software. It offers other audio file formats like MP3, AAC, FLAC whereas streaming soundtracks wirelessly. The awesome part of its featuring inbuilt function is the AirPlay & DLNA technologies ensures people to connect multiple screens from devices and share with families and friends.

Part 4: Convert APE to FLAC

Since we all have come to the conclusion, that the APE file is not commonly used and even got supported widely by a vast number of player programs on either Mac or Windows. As the further question can be how do I open APE files if I want to use my iPhone music player apps? Well, It is fair to say that only a particular part of the audio formats can be played based on the facts. Hence, here we have a solution for you to convert APE files to FLAC in order to make this audio file more acceptable on multiple devices and programs. For your information, the FLAC file is a popular format of lossless quality. Thus, a formidable APE audio file converter is intensively required, Leawo Video Converter is strongly recommended.

Step 1: Download and install this APE audio file converter on your Windows computer. There is also Mac version available.

   

Step 2: Launch the program and import the APE file into it. You can drag APE files directly over the main interface. Or choose the "Add Video" to put APE files.

Step 3: Now you can click on the "MP4 Video" then select the "Change" button from the dropbox. Once you enter the profile panel, you should change the output format as FLAC in the "Format" column and the "Common Audio" tab.

Once you enter the profile panel, you should change the output format as FLAC in the “Format” column and the “Common Audio” tab.

Step 4: Go back to the main window and look for a green "Convert" button. Click on it to call out the burning setting sidebar. Here you should decide the output directory for saving the files from APE files to FLAC.

Step 5: At last, hit the white "Convert" button at the bottom to start the process.

Part 5: Comparison chart between APE and FLAC

On the preceding segment of this guide, we mentioned that you can convert APE audio to FLAC audio. But how does APE audio compare against FLAC audio? We will explore that on the comparison chart below:

	APE audio	FLAC audio
Lossless format	Yes	Yes
Coding	Not open source	Open source
Damaged file playback	Left data unplayable	Left data playable
Compatibility with media players	Fewer media players support it	More media players support it
File sizes	Smaller	Larger