why does this rip sound like its in a can.

It doesn't really sound 'tinny' as such, but it doesn't sound good. What's causing it? Hard to say definitively - there are far too many variables here, but I'll tell you what I think: For a start, you haven't said which Music Hall TT - they vary quite a lot. The bit that worries me slightly is 'mic-in patch line from a vintage Sony receiver'. If you take what is a typical output from an old reciever and feed it into a mic input, then unless you are very careful, you will end up with both overload and noise problems. Any output from an old reciever is going to be at more or less line level, not mic level, so far higher signal level than the input can cope with without an attenuator in the line. But then you've fed the signal into an extra (and therefore noise-adding) stage. Not good. What's just as bad is that you've fed it into a Creative Lies SB - a card we have disliked for decades, and that really doesn't work that well anyway.

My advice would be to get a new sound device with a line input, or better yet, a phono input. These days there are loads of USB ones available that will comfortably out-perform a SB without breaking a sweat. Numark make a cheap one, but there are loads more available. Just do a google search using the term 'sound device with phono input' and you'll find them easily.

It's also worth checking the TT setup, and looking critically at the cartridge/stylus. If that part of it isn't performing to spec, then nothing you feed it into afterwards can fix that at all. Bottom line; check out the whole system, because this could easily be a combination of a number of issues.