Possible to convert Apple Lossless to WAV.?

Right. I think you'll lose any album art you have if you convert to WAV. I also think you have bad information about the limitations of iTunes, but regardless, you should be able to find an alternative piece of software that will run on the Mac and will accommodate your library of ALC files. There's tons of stuff out there, more every week. And you can reasonably expect iTunes to evolve to better meet the needs of peoples' growing music libraries.

I have over 4000 CDs ripped via apple lossless and have had no problems at all.

i also have over 1000+ cd's ripped via apple lossless with no problems.

I'm very glad to stand corrected about iTunes thanks to Sfar and Sufentanil.

Thanks for the valuable input guys. This is the thread that I referred to:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?icomp&1220427207

From what you say though, maybe I will just stick with Apple Lossless, and I guess there is a lot more I should read up on before exploring with questions like the one I had.

Overall, I'm looking for the best quality sound (virtually no compromise) using PC as a server. I don't have to get there immediately (I can upgrade to a very high quality DAC later on), but I want to make sure that the investmet of time, effort and $ that I make in transferring my CDs to my PC is done in the best way, so that I get the source data 'right'. From there, I'll then work on optimizing the output all the way to my preamp. A key route I'm pursing is Squeezebox duet (Love the remote), and from tehre will upgrade to Transporter, and then maybe Modwright Transporter or a stand-alone dac. I'm amazed at how little consensus there is on the right way to best sound from the PC though.

Anyways, I'll keep reading and then post more if I have questions