Educate me on FLAC choices when streaming

[ted_b]

Simon,
I am currently using Minimserver/Minimstreamer for at least two renderers:
a) Sonore Signature Rendu (UPnP or OH, depending on Bubble Server)
b) Jplay JPlaystreamer (OH)

I have a mix of FLAC (all levels of compression over the eyars, from default 5-6 to uncompressed), WAV and DSF.

Question 1: For A I don't need to do flac:wav transcoding command in stream.transcode, for B I do. Why? Does the Rendu do it's own transcoding? Is there such a thing as not transcoding FLAC??

Question 2: due to some bugs in this early beta testing of the JPLAYstreamer (wav static blasts due to metadata, etc) I have begun thinking (again, thought about this months ago) that I may want to take my most played WAV albums and convert them to FLAC, since I transcode to WAV anyway, in Jplaystreamer. BUT....what about Rendu? Does it not transcode FLAC and therefore have a theoretical sonic advantage with wav??

Question 3: if I go ahead and convert my wavs to FLAC (batch conversion with db poweramp) should I do uncompressed FLAC or does Minimserver care? I do little if any seeking so seek tables are not a real concern, but how Minimserver transcodes or even decodes, is important if it means choosing a certain compression level.

Thanks
Ted