DIY Plug and Play PCI RIAA Phono Preamp

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These web pages detail how I built a Plug and Play PCI RIAA Phono Preamp. This preamp will allow the user to connect a turntable with a magnetic cartridge to your computer for hard disk tranfers, or for casual listening. Although this project was fairly easy to build, there is always a risk when working inside a computer. If you've never handled a soldering iron or built other electronic circuits, you may want to consider having someone else construct the project for you, or buy a Soundblaster with a built in RIAA preamp. Last I looked they ran about $180 US dollars. I salvaged many of the parts for this project from old cable boxes and other junk circuit cards, and managed to get it built for about $15 US dollars.
You can see the finished card installed below, connected to the Aux input of a Soundblaster Live card. The only connections made to the PCI port are +/- 12 Volts and ground. The Preamp does not interface with the processor, and only serves to filter and boost the output of a turntable to "line" levels. The Schematic can be found at PIAA's web site. The board is based on the layout pictured below, but was done with rub on transfers. The layout below is not to scale and for reference only. You'll need a double sided circuit board so you can pick up both the Plus and minus rails from the PCI slot. If you would like to verify the pins, here is a link to a PCI pinout. The NE5532 is well suited to this application. Here is link to the NE5532's Datasheet"
The first thing you will need is some doublesided copper clad board, this can be easily obtained at your local electronics store. Use an old PCI card as a template to mark the circuit board under construction. (Sorry 'bout the Blurry picture)
Here is what the marked board should look like.
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