Reply to Midi Controller: Novation Twitch a waste of money?

I'm in the market for a new midi controller to upgrade from my Hercules MP3 E2 to something better with a built in soundcard. I really like the Novation Twitch but I've been hearing of concerns about the soundcard it comes with having way too low of an output volume. The Twitch is $450 on Amazon.com so that pretty much is the most I want to spend. I've done a bunch of research but I'm still unsure.

My question to you guys:
How bad is the sound output and is it a deal breaker?
Any other concerns with the Twitch?
For the $450 price range any other controllers you would recommend instead?