Yes. Samply re-encodes audio to AAC for browser playback. Even with the high-quality setting enabled, what the recipient hears in the player is an AAC-encoded version of your file, not the original.
What "Lossless" Means in Samply
Samply offers a quality setting that is described as lossless, but lossless here refers to the quality tier within their encoding pipeline - not to serving the source file directly. The audio is still processed and re-encoded to AAC before it reaches the browser.
Re-encoding always involves decisions about the audio, even at high bitrates. It is not the same as streaming the original WAV or AIFF you uploaded.
The file you exported and the file your client hears in Samply are not the same file.
What Samply Does Well
Samply is genuinely good at the listening experience. The player is clean, the interface feels professional, and the audio quality is a significant step above general-purpose tools like Dropbox or Google Drive. For most review sessions, the gap between high-quality AAC and a source WAV is subtle.
For sharing finished work where the listening experience matters more than bit-for-bit accuracy, it is a solid option.
What Samply Lacks
Beyond the source-file question, the gap that comes up most in professional workflows is feedback:
- No timestamped waveform comments - recipients have no way to pin feedback to a specific moment in the track
- Notes arrive by email or message, disconnected from the audio itself
- Playlist organization for multi-track deliveries is limited
Lossless vs. Untouched
Most platforms use "lossless" to describe a codec decision - FLAC, ALAC, or high-bitrate AAC that avoids further quality degradation. That is a meaningful step up from 128kbps MP3. But it still means your audio was decoded, processed, and re-encoded before it reached the browser.
Echoe does not make a codec decision at all. The WAV file you upload is the file that streams. No decoding, no re-encoding, no pipeline between your export and the listener's ears. That is a technically stronger claim than lossless - it is not about preserving quality through a process, it is about skipping the process entirely.
How Echoe Compares
Echoe streams the original file - the WAV you uploaded is what plays in the browser, without re-encoding or processing of any kind. It also includes timestamped waveform comments, playlist organization, and permanent links on the free tier.
If the listening quality is the priority and feedback tools are not needed, Samply is a strong option. If you need both, or if source-accurate playback is a hard requirement, Echoe covers the full workflow.