Well, I was pretty well informed about the fact that these audio interfaces and other equipment (under 300 dollars) would not produce any studio quality
Couple of thoughts. Can you get both used and see how they compare? Sell the one you like least, hopefully getting most of what you paid for it if you didn't get hosed on the purchase.
Then compare that one to a Marshall
MXL 990.
I've never heard a solid definition of what constitutes "studio quality" but unless the mic and interface are truly junk you might be surprised at what kind of quality you can get using less expensive gear. Besides the quality of the performance, a lot of it is in the way the gear is used and then how the material is treated after the fact. The only way to discover this in a meaningful way is to explore how others do things, experiment and get a first-hand feel for what happens when you record.
As a demonstration that you don't have to have exotic gear to get really good results take a listen to this.
Close enough to "studio" quality for you? Remember this is after YouTube has gotten done mangling his original which I believe is at best something like 126kbps, then reconverted from the d/l'd mp4 on my end to .wav then to .mp3. I.e. - the original is going to be better than what you hear here.
Granted he's singing to professional backing tracks but the gear he's singing into is not at all high end and not in an expensively treated environment.
AKG 3000B mic - can be had for under $200 on ebay
Presonus Bluetube pre - ditto
Of course as a starting point he has a fantastic, pro-level voice. He also has some decent software and some engineering chops. He's recording with an ancient version of Cakewalk but he has some good post-software. Waves Mercury bundle, L2 limiter,
S1 Stereo Imager.
However, you don't really have to have even as much as he does invested in software (which isn't a lot compared to what you could spend). You could approximate what he's got with an older copy of
Soundforge. And of course you have to learn to use the software.