diff -r 7b165c7ab7ef Doc/library/sndhdr.rst
--- a/Doc/library/sndhdr.rst	Thu Aug 01 15:32:49 2013 +0200
+++ b/Doc/library/sndhdr.rst	Thu Aug 01 18:08:36 2013 +0300
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 
 The :mod:`sndhdr` provides utility functions which attempt to determine the type
 of sound data which is in a file.  When these functions are able to determine
-what type of sound data is stored in a file, they return a tuple ``(type,
+what type of sound data is stored in a file, they return a namedtuple ``(type,
 sampling_rate, channels, frames, bits_per_sample)``.  The value for *type*
 indicates the data type and will be one of the strings ``'aifc'``, ``'aiff'``,
 ``'au'``, ``'hcom'``, ``'sndr'``, ``'sndt'``, ``'voc'``, ``'wav'``, ``'8svx'``,
@@ -31,13 +31,13 @@
 .. function:: what(filename)
 
    Determines the type of sound data stored in the file *filename* using
-   :func:`whathdr`.  If it succeeds, returns a tuple as described above, otherwise
+   :func:`whathdr`.  If it succeeds, returns a namedtuple as described above, otherwise
    ``None`` is returned.
 
 
 .. function:: whathdr(filename)
 
    Determines the type of sound data stored in a file based on the file  header.
-   The name of the file is given by *filename*.  This function returns a tuple as
+   The name of the file is given by *filename*.  This function returns a namedtuple as
    described above on success, or ``None``.
 
diff -r 7b165c7ab7ef Lib/sndhdr.py
--- a/Lib/sndhdr.py	Thu Aug 01 15:32:49 2013 +0200
+++ b/Lib/sndhdr.py	Thu Aug 01 18:08:36 2013 +0300
@@ -32,6 +32,11 @@
 
 __all__ = ['what', 'whathdr']
 
+from collections import namedtuple
+
+_SndHeaders = namedtuple('_SndHeaders',
+                         'filetype framerate nchannels nframes sampwidth')
+
 def what(filename):
     """Guess the type of a sound file."""
     res = whathdr(filename)
@@ -70,7 +75,7 @@
         a = aifc.open(f, 'r')
     except (EOFError, aifc.Error):
         return None
-    return (fmt, a.getframerate(), a.getnchannels(),
+    return _SndHeaders(fmt, a.getframerate(), a.getnchannels(),
             a.getnframes(), 8 * a.getsampwidth())
 
 tests.append(test_aifc)
@@ -104,7 +109,7 @@
         nframe = data_size / frame_size
     else:
         nframe = -1
-    return filetype, rate, nchannels, nframe, sample_bits
+    return _SndHeaders(filetype, rate, nchannels, nframe, sample_bits)
 
 tests.append(test_au)
 
@@ -117,7 +122,7 @@
         rate = 22050 / divisor
     else:
         rate = 0
-    return 'hcom', rate, 1, -1, 8
+    return _SndHeaders('hcom', rate, 1, -1, 8)
 
 tests.append(test_hcom)
 
@@ -131,7 +136,7 @@
         ratecode = 256 - h[sbseek+4]
         if ratecode:
             rate = int(1000000.0 / ratecode)
-    return 'voc', rate, 1, -1, 8
+    return _SndHeaders('voc', rate, 1, -1, 8)
 
 tests.append(test_voc)
 
@@ -146,7 +151,7 @@
         w = wave.openfp(f, 'r')
     except (EOFError, wave.Error):
         return None
-    return ('wav', w.getframerate(), w.getnchannels(),
+    return _SndHeaders('wav', w.getframerate(), w.getnchannels(),
                    w.getnframes(), 8*w.getsampwidth())
 
 tests.append(test_wav)
@@ -156,7 +161,7 @@
     if not h.startswith(b'FORM') or h[8:12] != b'8SVX':
         return None
     # Should decode it to get #channels -- assume always 1
-    return '8svx', 0, 1, 0, 8
+    return _SndHeaders('8svx', 0, 1, 0, 8)
 
 tests.append(test_8svx)
 
@@ -165,7 +170,7 @@
     if h.startswith(b'SOUND'):
         nsamples = get_long_le(h[8:12])
         rate = get_short_le(h[20:22])
-        return 'sndt', rate, 1, nsamples, 8
+        return _SndHeaders('sndt', rate, 1, nsamples, 8)
 
 tests.append(test_sndt)
 
@@ -174,7 +179,7 @@
     if h.startswith(b'\0\0'):
         rate = get_short_le(h[2:4])
         if 4000 <= rate <= 25000:
-            return 'sndr', rate, 1, -1, 8
+            return _SndHeaders('sndr', rate, 1, -1, 8)
 
 tests.append(test_sndr)
 
diff -r 7b165c7ab7ef Lib/test/test_sndhdr.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_sndhdr.py	Thu Aug 01 15:32:49 2013 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/test_sndhdr.py	Thu Aug 01 18:08:36 2013 +0300
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import sndhdr
+import pickle
 import unittest
 from test.support import findfile
 
@@ -18,6 +19,18 @@
             what = sndhdr.what(filename)
             self.assertNotEqual(what, None, filename)
             self.assertSequenceEqual(what, expected)
+            self.assertEqual(what.filetype, expected[0])
+            self.assertEqual(what.framerate, expected[1])
+            self.assertEqual(what.nchannels, expected[2])
+            self.assertEqual(what.nframes, expected[3])
+            self.assertEqual(what.sampwidth, expected[4])
+
+    def test_pickleable(self):
+        filename = findfile('sndhdr.aifc', subdir="sndhdrdata")
+        what = sndhdr.what(filename)
+        dump = pickle.dumps(what)
+        self.assertEqual(pickle.loads(dump), what)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()