Recommend an affordable USB Audio Interface with at least 3 inputs.

[Spiritos]

If you are willing to spend more, definitely the Steinberg UR44 rather
than the Akai, on all aspects: sound/drivers/stability.

Great looking interface indeed. Pricey for my budget but I need to read up on some more reviews about the Akai vs Steinberg to see if it would justify the price.

One more thing I failed to realise is that I prefer my Focusrite VRM Box to connect through s/pdif and neither of the options mentioned has this.

Although it's a bit of a hassle I can of ofcourse use the USB port and change settings each time in Sonar or Live but I don't know if the Akai or Steinberg are gonna make these DAWs throw up with the 2 interfaces connected. Especially Sonar X2 sometimes doesn't like my UA-25 plus the VRM Box connected.

[Spiritos]

I also noticed the Focusrite Scarlett 18i8. It's twice my initial budget (€348) but maybe I can find it used somewhere for around €250?Since it has s/pdif I can plug in the VRM Box and won't have to resort to manually changing settings everytime in my DAW.

So I narrowed my choices down to the Steinberg UR44 and the Scarlett 18i8.

The drivers issues with the AKAI trouble me but it has so much functionality and is the cheapest but obviously I should go for (recording) quality since the reason I'm looking for an upgrade are the mic inputs so pre-amp quality should be leading (along with latency for mixing ofcourse).

As the sentiment here seems to lean towards the Steinberg and Focusrite has a good rep, out of these 2 - what would be the final verdict?

Also, the Steinberg headphones out is maximum : 35 mW + 35 mW with 40 Ohm while the Focusrite is 90 mW with 60 Ohm. Would the Steinberg be enough to drive my 250 Ohm headphones?

EDIT: I found both should do fine in the can-departement.
Currently my local store has the Steinberg for 200 euros as B-stock as opposed to 340 euros for the Focusrite. My choice is made.

Thanks for the input!

[Spiritos]

EDIT: New Topic