Adding Mic Pres to a Motu 2408 - Mixer, Preamp or...?

[emptybe]

Another one for the good people of SoS:
After much deliberation I plumped for a MOTU 2408 MkIII and am so far very happy with the stability and latency. But I need to add some mic pres for recording live instruments and am pondering my options:
- A proper mic pre like a Focusrite Scarlett Octopre but it seems a lot or money when I don't need the ADAT I/O just to run the pres out to the MOTU's inputs
- An analogue mixer with direct outs - plenty of 8-16 track Soundcraft and A & H units with that going very reasonably on Ebay
- Just keep it simpler and get a USB interface (like a Scarlett 18i20) that has the pres already

Any advice appreciated...

[resistorman]

Possibly the Focusrite has better converters? Have you tried a preamp into the MOTU to see what it sounds like? Though honestly you could probably go any of these paths and get perfectly good results.