In the upcoming weeks, we will be moving all downloads to an enhanced, high-quality audio format and will no longer support format 4 downloading.
It’s been a while since Audible announced that it will phase out format 4 and move to Audible enhanced format only. So I login into my Audible library to check whether they make the further action or just saying. It is obvious that Audible did what is promised that there is no Audio quality options anymore. From now on, all your downloaded audible books will be in Audible enhanced format--.aax format.
What is Audible enhanced format?
But what is Audible enhanced format? Audible enhanced format is an exclusive Audible audiobook format that are minimally compressed so the audio quality is better than any other Audible previously supported format—format 4, format 3, and format 2. Since Audible enhanced format is ended with .aax extension so it is also called AAX format.
Format 4 VS Audible Enhanced format<
What’s the difference between Audible Format 4 and enhanced format?
The format 4 is with 32 bits whereas Audible enhanced format is with 64 bits.
If you don’t have much internal storage on your players, format 4 can save your life.
If you choose format 4 that means you will sacrifice the audio quality because audible enhanced format is noticeably better than format 4.
But this is no longer the case, from now on you have not any other option but audible enhanced format. To be honest, the quality of the audio downloaded as audible enhanced format is really high which is deemed as having CD-quality sound. If you have never downloaded audible enhanced before, just go to your audible library and just download one audio, and you’ll love it.
After knowing what audible enhanced format is, you must be curious that is there any way to convert audible enhanced format to mp3 or m4b, the most widely used format. Don’t worry. I am going to share you the easiest way to convert Audible enhanced format to mp3 or m4b in the following part.
How to Convert Audible Enhanced Format to MP3 or M4B
Before converting audible books, please download Audible AAX to your computer at first.
The Tool You'll Need Epubor Audible Converter
Key features of Epubor Audible Converter:
1 Convert Audible AA/AAX(audible enhanced format) to MP3/M4B
2 Split Audible into chapters with original quality preserved
3 Enable you to edit the metadata of Audible books
4 Super-fast conversion speed
1Launch Epubor Audible Converter and add (or drag &drop) the audible books to it.
2This is an optional step—if you want to edit audible metadata or split audible into chapters, you can’t skip this step.
Note: Splitting audible into chapters and the editing metadata is not availalble in Epubor Audible Converter trial version.
Click the “Option” button to prompt the new window which contains the Splitting and Metadata option. Here you can split audible into chapters by selecting “Split by Chapters”, and then click “ok”.
It also allows you to edit metadata of audible files, including title, album, artist, copyright, year, genre and comments.
3Convert Audible enhanced format to mp3 or m4b.
Select mp3 or m4b as the target format, and then click on “Convert to Mp3” or “Convert to m4b” button to start the conversion.
The audible enhanced format audio books will be decrypted and converted to your selected format. Once finished, “Succeeded” will appear, next to the audible book title.
Meanwhile, the folder storing the converted audible files will pop up immediately.
Now you can follow my steps to convert audible enhanced format AAX to MP3 or M4B.
Some tips you may want to know
1From now on, the audible books downloaded to your computer, no matter via Audible app for Windows, audiblesync, and from Audible.com directly, will be in audible enhanced format (.aax) format.
2For the audible books downloaded from Audible android devices, they are in .aaxc format. This format is not able to be decrypted with Epubor Audible converter directly or any other audible converter on the market. Hereby, please download the audible books to your computer and then convert with Epubor Audible Converter.
3For the previously downloaded audible format 4(.aa), Epubor audible converter still supports its decrypting and converting.
4The trial version only converts 10 minutes of each audiobook. Splitting chapters and editing metadata is not available in trial version.
Now it's your turn to download the Epubor Audible Converter and convert your .aax (audible enhanced format) to mp3.
Iris Yan has been a passionate member of Epubor since 2017. Her mission is to enhance your ebook reading experience by sharing insightful tips and tricks. Join her on a journey towards reading excellence today!
