I bought a M-Audio MobilePre to use for just one spesific voice recording. I figured I didn't need highclass gear since it is to be converted to low-bitrate mp3 anyway.

Before I take this back and make arguments I would like to hear how others experiences with this has been? As bad as mine?

First, its got hiss worse than an old cassette recorder. Second, I don't get enough volume. It goes up to -15 or so, but if I gain up on the MobilePre it will just distort the signal more from there on.

I have never used equipment like this before, so I'm not quite sure how bad it really is supposed to be, or if it is something wrong with the card. I read a couple of reviews, and it sounded absolutely good enough for the purpose. I'm getting better sound with the builtin soundcard and preamps in the laptop, so the MobilePre hardly counts for nothing but a book-stand for now.

Info on MobilePre:
http://m-audio.com/products/en_us/MobilePreUSB-main.html

Thanks in advance for any opinions!