Does McIntosh MCD500 decode FLAC?

I doubt it. How would you connect a hard drive to it without using a computer with a digital out? You need to decode the FLAC files first in the computer. You can download the free version of Winamp which has a FLAC decoder built in.

It seems that the MCD500 has both coax and toslink digital inputs, implying that it accepts S/PDIF inputs. FLAC files can be converted into an S/PDIF output with a combination of software (music software capable of playing FLAC) and hardware (a sound card capable of coax or toslink digital outputs). Alternatively, the conversion from FLAC file to a digital output could be accomplished in hardware alone with a Logitech Squeezebox.

The bottom line is that based on the device's specs I can't find any way that you can do it without using a computer to interpret the FLAC files and send them as digital outputs to the unit.

Michael

Thanks for the replies. I have the flac files on an Olive Opus music server and was just going to use the digital outputs directly into the MCD500 to take advantage of the DAC. I am a bit naive here, I thought that the toslink out of the Olive would be native FLAC file. Am I mistaken?

No FLAC will be converted to PCM in the Olive Opus and send over toslink which the MCD500 can play.