I’ve gone the “used” (albeit recycling my own old gear) and different quality route. Two devices with 8 channels each:
- Higher quality: Steinberg MR816csx with 8 good quality Yamaha pre’s and converters
– for microphone or hardware synth or external fx input - Lower quality: Presonus Digimax FS
– using that mostly for my 5 channel guitar recording setup, since electric guitar isn’t typically pristine hi-fi anyways.
On my radar in the lower price range (since I don’t record beyond 48KHz):