WavPack 4.80 - for Mac

Unlike standard lossless codecs, WavPack can create both a compact lossy file for everyday listening and a correction file that restores full lossless quality when needed.

The codec compresses audio to 30-70% of the original size without losing any quality.

WavPack supports all common audio formats including 8, 16, 24, and 32-bit files, mono and stereo, plus multichannel recordings up to 192 kHz - perfect for high-resolution music archives.

Download OptionsThen download the source code, extract it, and build:

Version 4.80.0 (Pre-built Binary): Download the ready-to-use Mac binary directly from our site - no compilation required. Simply unzip and run the command-line tools immediately.

Version 5.9.0 (Latest): The WavPack developer no longer provides pre-compiled Mac binaries for version 5.x. To get the latest version, you have two options: install via Homebrew or compile from source.

Install Latest Version via Homebrew

The easiest way to get WavPack 5.9.0 on Mac is through Homebrew, the popular macOS package manager. Open Terminal and run:

brew install wavpack

This automatically downloads and installs the latest version for both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

Compile from Source

If you prefer not to use Homebrew, you can compile WavPack 5.9.0 yourself.

First, install Xcode Command Line Tools if you haven't already:

xcode-select --install

Then download the source code, extract it, and build:

curl -O https://www.wavpack.com/wavpack-5.8.1.tar.bz2
tar -xjf wavpack-5.8.1.tar.bz2
cd wavpack-5.8.1
./configure
make
sudo make install

The compiled binaries will be installed to /usr/local/bin/ and include wavpack, wvunpack, wvgain, and wvtag.

Playback and Encoding Tools

Mac users can play WavPack files directly in VLC Media Player for Mac without any additional setup.

For encoding and music library management, foobar2000 offers full WavPack support when paired with the foobar2000 Free Encoder Pack.

WavPack runs via command line on macOS, making it easy to batch process entire music collections.

The codec preserves ID3 and APEv2 tags, keeping your artist names, album titles, and track information intact throughout conversion.

Looking for Windows? Download WavPack for Windows for the latest version with full GUI tool support.