I'm looking to connect my turntable through a phono preamp that I could connect to my computer. I'd also like this to serve as a sound card for my laptop. I've been looking at the M-Audio Fast Track Pro and am wondering if you think this would fit the bill? Are there any other products out there that will do this? Will the M-Audio preamp work fine for vinyl (it's not loud enough without preamp, even with my 200W semi-cheapie Logitechs' amp cranked to the max)? I'm asking because I know this product is geared more towards musicians with the desire to record, and the preamp in there is geared more towards that. Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately not. Phono preamp requirements are significantly different than those of microphones and musical instruments. Those in that soundcard will not produce decent LP playback, even if you managed to make some kind of a hookup to those (quite different than normal HiFi) input jacks.

I believe there are a few soundcards with built-in phono preamps but I would not recommend that as a way to go. There are many stand-alone phono preamps in every price range (probably from less than $20 to certainly well above $20,000). A used receiver, line level preamp, or integrated amplifier will often contain a decent enough phono preamp.

Thanks for the reply. I just learned about the RIAA curves today, which is quite interesting. You learn something new every day! I just bought myself a decent preamp and now need suggestions on a good quality external sound card for my computer. It will obviously need RCA inputs for my preamp. I will be outputting to headphones or speakers. I'm still looking at the M-Audio stuff because a friend of mine has the Firewire Solo and I was very impressed at how clean the headphone out was. I do not need most of the inputs/outputs (XLR and such), however, so something with less frills but excellent sound quality would be best. Any suggestions?