FLAC is not processed by DAC????

[ryanNL]

Two salespersons from different local reputed stores told me FLAC is not going to be processed by DAC and it will bypass the DAC chip and go straight to phone out. but Wave is blessed. I don't see if they are asked to say so, because neither sells music. One even ask me to go for a cheaper DAP instead of the DAC i am looking for.
I tried out Sony pha-3 and VentureCraft Vantam.
 
I m very confused. DAC is supposed to do the decoding, if bypassed, where is the sound come from? Those two salesperson said no nothing about but ask me to google es9018. I was too shocked to ask elaborate. as I can tell flac is compressed pcm and wav is plain pcm. How come the DAC chip only do the magic on wav but not both ( sony & venturecraft quote FLAC as supported format )?
 
Can someone familiar shows me the mechanic behind or give me a link?
one last question: if DAC can really only work on WAV, do you recommend me to convert all my flac to wav or do the download/ripping again? 

 

[stv014]

FLAC is decoded in software, and then played the same way as WAV. The DAC chip itself cannot decode FLAC, so if there is any difference in the output (there should not be), it is a software issue.

 

[ryanNL]

so you meant they are all totally wrong.

 

[castleofargh]

DACs do not do the decoding. it's a CPU that does the job, just like your computer extracts a .zip or .rar before being able to use what's inside. the signal that really goes into the DAC section is always PCM, so wave(except a few DSD DACs when fed with DSD). even if the track is a mp3, it will be converted to PCM before going in the DAC.
 
all in all it's just a software conversion as stv014 said. and there are really no reason why a flac should be different from wave if the product playing the track isn't complete crap.

 

[ryanNL]

at least i have some reliable sources of knowledge....
Thank you guys

 

[castleofargh]

well ... reliable... we're internet dudes

 

[An00bis]

that's like saying a monitor can't process .mkv or .png files

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  that's like saying a monitor can't process .mkv or .png files

 
Well if you hooked up a computer or disc player that can't then the monitor can't show the video either, same way that if your transport/source can't process FLAC then it can't send a PCM signal to the DAC.