I have a RME Babyface Pro FS which is just about all I need but the ada8200 is so cheap I got one in case I need to do a bit more. I’ve found it great as the extra 8 have become very useful. I’ve tried the pre amps and you have to put the gain really high for a dynamic mic but a condenser is fine. Sounds quite good though and I’ll probably use it to record drums. The Babyface pre-amps will always be used for vocals and acoustic instruments. It’s 44.1/48 at 24bit which for me is fine
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):
I did fancy one of those but I wanted the outputs more than inputs and most I see are only mic inputs. I also get to use my Babyface as the master as I have optical in both directions