A couple other thoughts for people who are looking around.
- I had a consumer M-Audio interface that was always a bit weird. One day well outside the warranty period I popped the lid off and discovered a tombstoned resistor and two bodge wires on the PCB. I reached out to M-Audio on Twitter and the best they could do was offer me a $20 discount on another interface. Very unimpressed.
- I replaced it with a Behringer UMC404HD and the very first thing I did when it arrived was pop the cover off. I'm an EE by trade and I was very impressed by the design. The board layout etc was nice, but the part that really surprised me was the pre-amps for the mic inputs. Maybe I'm weird for feeling this way, but the folks who designed it have taste. The pre-amps are designed around some NJR op-amps; NJR parts are notorious for being slew-rate-limited for a lot of applications, but to my ears they sound absolutely buttery smooth. The fact that the designers used those parts instead of some jelly-bean "flat" op-amps really made me appreciate the consideration that went into the design.
Edit: and yes, I know Behringer has a bit of a reputation for being "kinda cheap and kinda crappy" but I have zero complaints and I've had this unit for a few years now.
IIRC the UMC404 was designed just after they bought Midas, and those engineers had a lot of input.
Behringer has gotten a lot better, their early days (20 year ago) they made cheap junk clones. Now they have some good gear as well.
Though the company itself has other operating practices people don't like. You should for sure do your research on them. I have some of their gear, but I'm not sure I'll buy more.
- I had a consumer M-Audio interface that was always a bit weird. One day well outside the warranty period I popped the lid off and discovered a tombstoned resistor and two bodge wires on the PCB. I reached out to M-Audio on Twitter and the best they could do was offer me a $20 discount on another interface. Very unimpressed.
- I replaced it with a Behringer UMC404HD and the very first thing I did when it arrived was pop the cover off. I'm an EE by trade and I was very impressed by the design. The board layout etc was nice, but the part that really surprised me was the pre-amps for the mic inputs. Maybe I'm weird for feeling this way, but the folks who designed it have taste. The pre-amps are designed around some NJR op-amps; NJR parts are notorious for being slew-rate-limited for a lot of applications, but to my ears they sound absolutely buttery smooth. The fact that the designers used those parts instead of some jelly-bean "flat" op-amps really made me appreciate the consideration that went into the design.
Edit: and yes, I know Behringer has a bit of a reputation for being "kinda cheap and kinda crappy" but I have zero complaints and I've had this unit for a few years now.