maximumpower
Just FYI - Focusrite told me they would have Windows 10 drivers available by the time Windows 10 came out.
 
I have no opinion between which interface to get (sorry) although I am interested to hear which one you choose and how well you liked it.

I'm running their beta on Win10 eval. Better than the old driver!

Rimshot - I'm on Win 7, and I will probably upgrade, but not right away. The way I see it, Steinberg has over a year to get Win 10 drivers ready (in order for me to take advantage of MS's free offer), so if I end up with UR-44 I should be OK. I like Win 7.
My entire DAW career has been using a mixer into my sound card. I've never had to think about gain -- always had plenty. But I am hearing this "not enough gain" (and low headphone volume) thing about a lot of low cost interfaces, including both the ones I'm looking at. Thanks for the reminder. One more thing to hang me up. 
MaxPower - I'll let you know what I think, if I can ever make up my mind!
Johnny V. -  I saw your review and read your helpful "blurb."
Charlyg - You're a brave man.
 
Still leaning Steinberg, although the Win 10 driver issue gives me pause. I wonder how the existing driver would work...

IF YOU WERE willing to pay for a UR44,
i'd step up with a little more, and get the 4 input focusrite 
 

Focusrite Scarlett 18i8

http://www.sweetwater.com.tore/detail/Scarlett18i8

batsbrew
IF YOU WERE willing to pay for a UR44,
i'd step up with a little more, and get the 4 input focusrite 
 Focusrite Scarlett 18i8
http://www.sweetwater.com.tore/detail/Scarlett18i8

Batsbrew - OK, I'll bite. Why do you think the 18i8 would be the right choice? Preamps? Mix Control? Latency? I could swing the extra 50 bucks, if you'll come to LA and play on one of my tracks.

Man, if I ever need more than 2 inputs, I think that 8i8 may just be the ticket.

Larry, have you read all these?
 
http://audiosex.pro/index.php?/topic/13604-steinberg-ur44-vs-focusrite-scarlett-18i8/
 
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/950975-steinberg-ur44-vs-focusrite-scarlett-18i8.html
 
http://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=157&t=50168
 

Rimshot
Larry, have you read all these?
 
http://audiosex.pro/index.php?/topic/13604-steinberg-ur44-vs-focusrite-scarlett-18i8/
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/950975-steinberg-ur44-vs-focusrite-scarlett-18i8.html
http://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=157&t=50168
 

I have now. Thanks! People are lovin' their Scarletts.

I just bought the 18i8 yesterday. It was a big upgrade from my older UA25EX. Nice sound and clear. On the mix control a workable size setting was 2ms. I use mainly softsynths. On Splat it display displayed input latency of 5.4ms and output 7.4ms with total roundtrip at 12.8ms. My older UA25EX I could managed at little bit better 11 plus ms roundtrip.

musichoo
I just bought the 18i8 yesterday. It was a big upgrade from my older UA25EX. Nice sound and clear. On the mix control a workable size setting was 2ms. I use mainly softsynths. On Splat it displayed input latency of 5.4ms and output 7.4ms with total roundtrip at 12.8ms. My older UA25EX I could managed at little bit better 11 plus ms roundtrip.

musichoo - See, this is what spooks me about "upgrading" to USB. I don't have a lot of features on my sound card (the same Audiophile I see in your equipment list), but under "Driver Settings," Sonar informs me:
 
"ASIO reported latencies (includes buffer and hardware latencies):
Input: 3.1 msec (299 samples)
Output: 3.0 msec (284 samples)
Total round trip: 6.1 msec (583 samples)
...so it looks as if this very nice USB interface is only about half as "fast" as my aging cheap PCI card. I have no first hand experience with a 12.8 msec delay. On paper it doesn't seem that bad, but I don't know if I could play with that much delay. My main instrument is guitar, and I make use of amp sims, so direct monitoring (for "near-zero latency") wouldn't work for me.

Using my UR44 at 96 sample rate, and Sonar Sampling Rate of 48000 I get:
Input 4.6 msec 219 samples
Output 5.5 mscec 262 samples
Total Rountrip: 10.0 msec, 481 samples
 
I could go down to 64 Samples but that puts too much strain on my CPU. Those numbers are:
 
Input: 3.9 msec. 187 samples
Output: 4.8 msec. 230 samples
Total Roundtrip: 8.7 samples