Having a high quality soundcard is REALLY important here. The best preamp in the world won't sound very good through a normal run-of-the-mill soundcard. You need a soundcard designed for digital recording, like the units made by RME, MOTU, Echo, E-mu. They have high-quality analog-to-digital converters, and that can make a big difference in sound quality. Hook a great preamp to a good soundcard, and it can sound as good as a professional studio. Like most things, though, you get what you pay for, and the really good stuff ain't cheap. Good news is, though, the soundcards aren't nearly as expensive as the top of the line preamps, which can go for $3000 a piece for the best ones. Good recording soundcards run anywhere from $150 for simple ones to $1000 for nice multichannel systems. They sound really, really nice and there's no comparison to typical soundcards computers come with.
