Hello all.

I was told that I stuck this in the wrong forum. Hope I don't get booted because of it.
anyway...

I'm using cakewalk platinum.
I'm looking at purchasing either Motu's 828mk3 hybrid, 896mk3 hybrid or Presonus 192 studio. Any thoughts on these? Really want to know if anyone uses the Presonus, with cakewalk platinum. I
It has USB 3.0

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

FWIW, Thus far... none of the USB-3 audio interfaces are out-performing the best USB-2 audio interfaces (when it comes to low round-trip latency).
  
The Presonus Studio 192 and Apollo Twin USB both yield higher round-trip latency than RME or MOTU USB-2 units.
 
An audio interface with 16-channels of I/O is nowhere near saturating the bandwidth of USB-2.
Thus, simply adding more (unused) bandwidth doesn't increase performance.
Liken the situation to driving a car.
If your car tops out at 120-MPH, it doesn't matter if you're driving on a two-lane highway or eight-lane freeway; maximum speed is 120-MPH.  Adding more lanes (bandwidth) doesn't increase the car's performance.

I tried a Presonus Studio 192.  It died the second day I had it and it was returned and I now have an MOTU 896mk3 Hybrid. 
 
There are several complaints about the Studio 192's high latency on other forums.  The self setup in the Presonus wound up with over 25 ms of input (recording) latency.  I was able to manually get it down to around 6 ms but that was the best I could get. 
 
The MOTU 896mk3 Hybrid's latency at a 64 buffer is 2.7ms input and 3.3 ms output for total roundtrip of 6.1 ms as reported by Sonar.  However, the 896mk3 Hybrid would not work (had dropouts) on a USB 3.0 port but works perfect on a USB 2.0 port.  This is an issue with many others according to a thread on the gearslutz forum.  I recently built a new PC (see my specs below) and installed a PCIe Firewire card (with T.I. chipset) and use that with my 896mk3 Hybrid.  The latency is exactly the same as USB.
 
A side note is the improved preamps in the MOTU.  I was using a Roland Octa-Capture and always used an external mic preamp for vocals as it seemed better.  With the MOTU I find I don't "need" the external mic preamp.

Jim Roseberry
Liken the situation to driving a car.
If your car tops out at 120-MPH, it doesn't matter if you're driving on a two-lane highway or eight-lane freeway; maximum speed is 120-MPH.  Adding more lanes (bandwidth) doesn't increase the car's performance.

That's got to be the best metaphor I've heard in a while. right after the RAM/desk-of-papers-one.

I like my Focusrite Scarlette 2i2.  I wish I'd gotten the 2i4 instead, but I bought the 2i2 by mistake.  No complaints, the latency is good, and it does everything I need for playing (and recording) with myself.  Except MIDI.  I had to pick up a Roland MIDI-USB adapter.

Finding an interface can be daunting.  For every good review you find, it seems there are an equal number of horror stories (witness Fireberd above).  My observation (for whatever it's worth) is that people are generally happy with MOTU and RME, so it sounds like you are on the right trail.
 
Good luck to you!

Thank you everyone for your insight and experience.
I have settled on the MOTU 828mk3 hybrid.
The decision was either the 828 or 896.
The 896 actually had too many preamps for my needs while not enough analog inputs.
The 828 has not enough preamp but exactly the right amount of analog inputs.
Both units have something no other interface has. (At least from my search).
The two adat connections on both the 828 and 896 have the ability to be configured as stereo optical connections, which is exactly what I need. The only other brand/model that comes close is the Personus 192 studio. It also has two adat connections, but only adat connection #2 has the ability to be configured as stereo optical.
That said, 828 it is.

Now, does anyone run with this, and what is your experience with it?

Peace, brothers