useme2305

all in one thread, yes.

first of all, im about to drop a serious amount of money (serious at least for for me) on recording equipment.

i've half owned an Audiofire 12 untill last week. the AF12 now belongs to my former recording partner. i got an MD441 and some small stuff in return.

what i really wanna get is a lunchbox with an MA5 or a great river. i'm pretty much set on this. but before that i want to get a decent upgrade from the AF12 with built in pres and kick ass conversion.

-apogee ensemble
-metric halo 2882

have the logic+ensemble issues i've been reading about been fixed or should i stay away from this combo?
the preamps of the ensemble offer 20db more gain than the 2882. will this even matter once i'll get the MA5/great river?

there are two major things that bug me.

number one: is the conversion of the Ensemble actually better than the AF12? i hear they use the same chipset?
number two: the Metric Halo was first released nine years ago. it's very hard for me to believe that there isn't a newer device in this price area with similar/better sound performance.

in the end i just really need a decent 8 channel interface with usable onboard pres.