FLAC/ALAC - Lossless audio output

[cemoz101]

Hi,

Sorry for the newb question in advance.

I used iTunes ages ago for playing back my music library which was all ALAC. I have close to half a TB of music and I have put it away along side my amp and speakers for some time since I had a boy and didn't want him to fiddle around with the gear.

Now that he is older, I am considering reformating the Mac Mini I had to Ubuntu and installing Subsonic on it. With iTunes, I used to playback via USB to my DAC and then to my amp.

My question is, with Subsonic, can one playback ALAC or FLAC (I would have to convert all ALAC to FLAC) without transcoding? Furthermore, can you output the audio on the server that is hosting the music or do you have to stream it to another device like a Sonos or Chromecast?

Again, sorry for the newb question, just want to get the facts straight before reformatting the Mac to Ubuntu.

Thanks!