Before I go to bed and forget, something usful worth looking out for at good bargain pre-owned prices is the Mindprint Trio.
A now discontinued compact desktop multi-purpose traditional analog front-end preamp, designed for use with entry level USB/firewire audio interfaces lacking in sufficient good quality input/output options.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may05/articles/mindprinttrio.htm

There are 2 versions, the original Red which is equipped with optical S/PDIF connections to a soundcard
or USB/firewire interface;
and the later version equipped with its own USB link.

I was fortunate enough to get the Red a few years ago at a very low end of line close-out sale price.

"Mindprint's Trio is designed to meet the specific needs of the desktop audio market and comprises a very practical combination of a channel strip and a monitor-control section, complete with headphone amp and talkback facilities. Although it doesn't include a computer audio interface as such, it does have optical S/PDIF inputs and outputs, so it could be used with the new Apple Mac G5 computers without the need to buy a separate audio interface. The voice-channel part of the package is based around a very respectable Class-A mic/instrument preamp with switchable 48V phantom power, compressor, and equaliser, but there's also a separate stereo line input with its own EQ that can be mixed with the mic input, as well as an auxiliary monitor input that could be used as a two-track return. Mindprint have taken part of the Trio's compressor design from their rather more costly DTC dual recording channel, and it provides programme-dependent adjustment of the time constants so that only a single knob is needed to adjust the processing. Furthermore, the mic channel's EQ is tailored specifically to vocals so you get the job done with fewer distracting controls...

...My feeling is that Mindprint have come up with a great product. For those musicians who record only one or two audio parts at a time, it combines all that is essential in a stereo monitor controller with a simple yet very smooth-sounding front end, and it therefore does away with the need for a separate channel strip or mixer. For the desktop studio user who works mainly alone or with one musician at a time, Mindprint's Trio is a very appealing all-in-one product for recording and monitoring."