Official documentation
Sustainability of Digital Formats: Linear PCM audio
Library of Congress, n.d.
Read the originalRead on October 17, 2026
- What it is
- The Library of Congress description of linear pulse-code modulation (PCM), the uncompressed audio encoding it recommends for preservation, and how its sample rate and sample size affect fidelity.
- How much weight it carries
- An official preservation description written for archives. It explains what the format is, not how a transcription tool performs on it.
Facts taken from this source
- The Library of Congress says linear PCM captures audio without lossy compression, and that its fidelity is enhanced by higher sample rates and sample sizes.
“Linear PCM captures and encodes audio without lossy compression. Fidelity for LPCM is enhanced by higher sample rates and sample sizes.” (Description)