I designed "THE RIPPER" solely for this purpose. And I made it as easy as possible to use. Basically, I started with a high quality and proven phono section (BUGLE), added a power supply, super regulation, volume control, and a headphone output. Oh yeah, it also has an ADC that spits out USB audio.
Plug and play with OS-X or XP. Just connect to USB port, wait a few seconds, that's it.
I have been using "Audacity" to make recordings, although there are plenty of other choices. Equalization and gain is already done in the phono stage, so no software processing is necessary. Save as WAV or MP3, whatever you want. All you need to do is adjust the analog volume control for proper input levels (use peak meters on the software).
That's it. No sound cards, no extra cables, no drivers. Just plug this in between your turntable and a USB port. And sell your other phonostage.
jh