[Devil Doc]

...a Music Fidelity V-DAC Mk II. However, I don't even know what I don't know. I'm not interested in downloads, but I like INTERNET radio. Can I assume if I hook this up correctly that anything that used to come out of my laptop speakers will now come through my stereo system? I'm sure in a few weeks it'll become apparent what a dumb question this is, but I'm getting up there in years and new things don't come as easy as they once did. TIA for any help.

Doc.

[ted_b]

Doc, Nice first DAC.  Congrats.

If you are truly not interested in hirez downloads (the DAC can handle anything up to 24/192k) then I will move this thread to the Discless Circle as you will get better hits there (and it will be irrelevant to talk about internet radio here on the HiRez Music Circle).

Internet radio is a function of your source (like the player in your pc) not the DAC.  So, yes, if you connect the DAC to your pc (say, via USB with the DAC's installable driver) and your DAC output to your stereo, then you will get internet radio via you stereo speakers.  Internet radio is very convenient, very fun, but hardly hirez (in most cases poor to medium mp3 quality). 

[srb]

Can I assume if I hook this up correctly that anything that used to come out of my laptop speakers will now come through my stereo system?

Most anything.  Most recent computers have a sound chip that can at least decode multichannel Dolby Digital soundtracks and mix them down to 2 channel to be played from the internal speakers, or out through their S/PDIF digital output (if so equipped) to be decoded with an AV processor or receiver.
 
So while all normal stereo sources will playback through the DAC, because it is a 2 channel DAC, if you attempt to play back multi-channel files or DVDs with the Dolby Digital soundtrack enabled you will likely hear either nothing or a nasty digital noise.
 
Steve

[Devil Doc]

Success! That was incredibly easy. Sounds like FM to me. Now that I've gotten over this hump, perhaps it's time to look into high rez downloads. Somewhere there must be instructions written for the geriatric set.

Doc