How to convert FLAC to WAV ?

I am curious to see for myself if there is an audible difference, following Steve Nugent's recommendation.

"there was no reason to go with WAV and in fact there were reasons not to. Curious why you would do this?"

Sound Quality. If your system cannot resolve the difference between FLAC or ALAC and .wav, this is not so unusual. There are very few highly resolving systems out there. If you are using a typical inexpensive active preamp, this alone will make it almost impossible to hear the difference.

If your goal is a truly transparent and highly resolving system, I can help you get there. Its not cheap, but not a fortune either. Here is one example:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=112012.msg1175451#msg1175451

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

"Any logic to why a particular interface would make a WAV sound better?"

Yes. Networked interfaces dont typically use much if any of the audio stack in the computer OS. USB and Firewire interfaces do.

This difference probably accounts for the difference in SQ using networked versus USB with FLAC and other compressed formats.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I've downloaded the Plant/Krauss song 'Killing the Blues' (24/96) in both formats and am in the process of doing direct comparisons.

The WAV version is winning . . . .

Forgot to mention I am also running the clock out of the DAC into the soundcard.