[Mr.T]

"Richard Crowley" wrote in message
...
However many (most?) internal sound cards, particularly the
ones built into the mother-board, typically suffer from poor
SNR because of the hostile digital hash internal to the computer
case. This is likely the reason for the recommendation for
external ("USB") A/D conversion.

In fact the best possible performance is from an internal PCI card, just ask
Arny if you want to know which one :-)
BTW, just because some motherboards have bad sound doesn't mean they ALL do.
In general though it is simply a cheap addition as you would expect.
Even a decade old 16 bit SoundBlaster or Audigy will do an adequate job on
vinyl however. And you can pick them up in the trash these days.

MrT.