Should I re-rip?


I ripped all my CDs to FLAC files using dbPoweramp on my PC yrs ago. I now have a better DAC and want to maximizie sound quality.  WouId it be worth my time to re-rip my cds to WAV (I even see that Steve Nugent on his website recommends AIFF over FLAC). Is lack of metadata still a problem with WAV?
Also, in dbPoweramp there are a number of setting options.  When I ripped to FLAC I just went with the default settings. Was that a mistake?
I’m not a computer guy. So please keep explanations very simple. Thanks in advance. 
rockyboy
While there is no difference between flac and wav and I cannot hear a difference no matter how hard I try, I can tell you from my experience some flac files 24/96 and 24/192 give me listening fatigue. For the heck of it, I converted them to wave and that solved the problem for me. All DACs convert whatever format into PCM; I think the process of unpacking the flac files prior to that conversion has some kind of an effect.

If you want to convert to wave, dBpoweramp can do that directly to your flac files without having to re-rip. It even has a batch converter to do them all at once.
dBpoweramp also has a setting for "uncompressed" (not "0" compression) flac, which is basically, as I understand it, a wav file with great metadata. So, no need to worry about the effects of the unpacking. Sounds identical to wav/aiff to me.
Wow! If I can convert without having to re-rip, that would be marvelous. All your input is invaluable. I will play with dbPoweramp tomorrow. 

dbpoweramp does a data and offset check.  If it says there was a match and no errors, you should not need to re-rip.  It's always good to examine the report after a rip.

As for format, .wav sounds best for most DACs.  Most people use FLAC or uncompressed FLAC because of the extensive tag handling.  If you don't care about this, then rip to .wav.  You can always convert back and forth without issues with dbpoweramp.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio