Hi,

If you take a WAV and convert it to FLAC, then convert the FLAC file back to WAV and do a bit-for-bit file comparison the two match. That's lossless. No information has been lost. You can re-create the original file. (Obviously here that's not looking at time-related information since the timing is handled by the replay mechanism)

Now, whether or not FLAC replay SOUNDS the same as WAV replay is another matter. That would be down to the processing that has to happen to decompress the FLAC file on the fly. In the case of the SqueezeBox I cannot tell the slightest difference between a FLAC and a WAV replayed at 44/16 so I'm happy with the implementation in the SB. I can't vouch for any windows based software though.

To me the fuzzy bass sounds like a higher degree of timing errors.

Tony