Any opinions on something in the $200-300US range? Since KPA does not (currently) support audio over USB I need to invest in a new audio/midi interface for both recording and I guess profiling as well? I say profiling because my only MIC is an AKGC3000 (condenser that requires phantom power) although I will probably pick up an SM57 in the future and you need a preamp/mixer if you are going to profile with more than one mic.
For pure cost effective and well built stuff I really like the Focusrite offerings (Saffire for firewire, Scarlett for USB). The one gotcha is that the round trip latency is slightly high (especially with the Scarlett USB) and I fear my KPA is going to take a while to get here, so I'd like to use Scuffham (for realtime playing) while I wait.
That Akai EIE Pro actually looks pretty neat and matches the vibe of the KPA for sure

but no spdif (I'm starting to wonder how important or even easy it's going to be to use spdif with the KPA?)
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio…WRWXGB&ZYXSEM=0
Presonus also has the new audiobox line which looks okay, but again, no spdif and no LINE INS which really sucks, that means reamping is out right?:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio…ecording-system
I tried the Komplete Audio 6 in the past and while the round trip latency is very low there were a few gotchas. I didn't like the master volume level on the top of the unit and line inputs didn't work through (you have to have tracks engaged for recording to be able to monitor audio).
Looks like Focusrite is still the front runner.