FYI, the Apogee is just shy of $2000.00 and I am sure worth every penny.
However, the Focusrite Saffire Pro 26 was nominated for the same TEC award that the Apogee won but is $699.00 and has 8 pres instead of 2.
From Focusrite:
"Saffire PRO 26 i/o combines eight award-winning pre-amps with sixteen channels of ADAT, and two channels of SPDIF (up to 192kHz). Also employed are Focusrite's high performance 24-bit digital converters" http://www.focusrite.com/product/saffire_pro_26_i_o/
My rep at Sweetwater said that the pres are not too bad but that the converters are incredible for a unit in this price range Plus you get some Plug-Ins derived from the Focusrite Liquid-Mix.
I own the Saffire Pro 10 that has the same pres and converters but without the 16 channels of ADAT and it goes for $499.
http://www.focusrite.com/product/saffire_pro_10_i_o/
I am clearly NOT a technical guru but I would think that you could buy the Saffire Pro 10 and a nice pre like a Grace 101 and run the pre into the Saffire line-ins and use the A/D converters to get into the computer and get both for a tad above $1000 or even less if you found a good condition used Grace 101.