power surges are a bitch.

anyway, i need something to replace it.

liked about it:
sound
enough i/o
latency
not built like a piece of crap
firewire
easy to change i/o via front panel, rather than software
small enough to be portable

disliked:
no xlr out
sound occasionally flickered in & out temporarily on all channels when switching applications (say, starting up tf2)
knobs are tiny and bunched together

uses for new one:
listening to music
ableton from time-to-time
games/everyday use
htpc

looking for:
great sound. at least as good, if not better than the deceased. not going to pay more just for features (the motu has more than i need), but would consider it for audio quality
must have 8 i/o, configurable as 7.1
i like the flexibility of portability, but it's not a must
probably not over 1k, but see above
aesthetics. sounds dumb, but it's going in an a/v rack and i don't want some goofy red thing with purple knobs in there, no matter how good it is


now, here's the other question. i've got a few basic midi controllers, but people seem to love the Evos and Zeros of the world. what am i gaining or losing by grabbing one of those instead of a regular audio interface like the Ultralite in terms of functionality and sound quality? also, is any of the lexicon pro stuff good (i can get it cheap, but if it sucks, it sucks)?

as the esl peeps would say, 'recommend me a sound card?'

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