Is there a difference betwenn *.aif and *.caf files?

Can I safely rename an aif 开发者_JAVA百科file to caf and use that with Core Audio, or is this a bad idea to do? I assume both are basically the same thing (ignoring things such as number of channels, bitrate and bit depth).

The file formats are the same, the extension is the only difference.

They are not the same, unfortunately.

Based on information provided by Wikipedia, Apple and others:

• CAF (Core Audio Format), a container for storing audio, was developed by Apple Inc. to overcome limitation of older digital audio formats like WAF, AIFF. CAF audio format is compatible only with Mac OS X 10.4 and higher; Mac OS X 10.3 needs QuickTime 7 to be installed.
• A CAF audio file cannot be added to iTunes, iPod, iPhone or iPad. It is not supported by Windows computers.
• A .caf container can contain many different audio formats, metadata tracks, and other data. It is not limited to a 4 GB file size like older digital audio formats. A single .caf file can theoretically save hundreds of years of recorded audio due to its use of 64-bit file offsets.