ESI Gigaport HD+ upgrade advice please

Hi and thanks for reading.
I have the old ESI Gigaport HD+ and am wanting to upgrade. I want something with the same minimum features ( IE playback only unit ), but with better sound quality. I have multichannel files on the pc and want to output them as lpcm from the pc via usb to the ESI.

So far i have looked at the focus scarlet but there is not much of an improvement, there are a few good motus but too expensive.

Budget is £300 .

Many thanks.

 

At that price point, I would be surprised if you hear that much difference in sound quality between manufacturers/models.

 

I only paid £79 for the esi so increasing the budget to £300 may help Don't know though Not sure Please help

 

Sorry, my point was if you didn't think the Focusrite Scarlet @ £300 sounded better, I wouldn't have thought the equivalent products from e.g Presonus, Native Instruments, Audient etc. would be much different.

Do you really need the 8 outputs? If you were happy to mix in software & like MOTU, the M2 & M4 are supposed to be very good.

(Also - you've posted this in the Reaktor forum. You might have more luck if you ask in the General Production or Computer Technology & Set-Up forums.)

 

Sorry, my mistake. It is not that Focusrite Scarlet, it is an older model.
But what do you think of the focusrite scarlett 18i20 anyway, would it be a good upgrade. The cheapest i can find it is £415, a little above what i want to spend though. Maybe i can find a second hand unit on ebay
Also i have been offered a lightly used motu ultralite mk4 for £390. Any thoughts on either of these, or can i get something good for under £300.

Many thanks.