The 57 is a good workhorse mic and probably will be an improvement over what you have now in many cases. Don't throw away what you've got now, though; as inexpensive and "unprofessional" as it is, you never know when it might have an interesting sound miked up to something.
I have no experience with the Audiophile card, so I can't comment on that directly. I will say, though, that if you are running the output from your mic preamp into the "Mic In" on your soundcard, that will definitely give you problems regardless of what card you are using. You definitely need to run the output of that preamp to the "Line In" (think of it this way, that is no longer a mic you are plugging directly into the soundcard, it is a "box". 98% of "boxes" operate at "Line" level.)
The "Line in" is a stereo jack, but you don't necessarily have to get an adapter to run both L&R into it. If you just run a mono cord into an mono adapter, that mono signal will be routed to the left channel. You can then record just that left channel as the mono signal. There will be no L-R bias in that mono signal, in the mixing and playback, you'll still be able to pan it hwerever you want it to go.
I'd say try the Line In thing first. I think that should eliminate most of your problems. If it still sounds really crappy, then it's time to troubleshoot the next step. But take it one step at a time is my recommendation.
G.
Yes I have tried adjusting all the levels and stuff.
