Which Audio Interface? Options

[Andy]

Greetings everyone, and a very happy and prosperous New Year to you all.

I begin the NY with a dilemma;

Having gone the Cubase route for the first 5 years of my sequencing life, I then switched to Logic for about 3 years and in the last 2 I've been using ProTools (sometimes with Logic, sometimes on its own).
The sound of the 888/24 is great to my ears, and I really don't want to lose that quality, but I've decided to sell my PT rig and get a G5 to go with my Logic. Problem is I'm not sure which way to go audio interface wise. I've owned an 828 in the past and found it good but not great when A/B'ed with an 888/24 (although I never expected any other result!) However, I do like MOTU products and the 896 HD looks quite interesting. Does anyone use one? Anyone A/B'ed it with an 888/24? I'd love to get some opinions before I take the big jump. Maybe an Apogee would be a good investment but again I've never used one.

Anyone help?

Thanks in advance

Andy