How to convert FLAC to WAV ?

"I am intrigued by the USB topic. Steve, are you saying that USB will beat my current setup I described above? I would love to put it to the test, thoughts?"

Very likely. Having the master clock in the DAC is of course the best scenerio, with one caveat: The clock in the DAC MUST have very low jitter, be powered from an ultra-low noise regulator with good input rejection as well as good design of the clocking circuitry. This is a tall order for most DAC designers.

Therefore, I believe an external Off-Ramp 5 with S/PDIF Hynes upgrade would be better. Its something you can try for the price of shipping. Money-back guarantee.

Using USB effectively however depends on having the right playback sofware and ripper as well as the optimum platform:

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/recommended-systems

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Doggie - I have a few AIFF files; not nearly enough to do any kind of comparison.

Maybe after I finish the 'wav vs flac' I'll move to a 'wav vs aiff'.

Do you think AIFF is better?

I find AIFF more convenient because it stores meta data. I think it sounded better than ALAC but presents slightly differently from WAV.