I've just got a soundcraft spirit f1 mixer and found that instead of connecting the ouputs of my apogee rosetta 200 audio interface to my monitors, if I connect the soundcraft f1 mixer to the rosetta 200 outputs then the outputs from my mixer to my monitors the sound is a little bit clearer and sounds more real, like when I listen to a bjork cd it sounds eerily like she's in my studio singing in front of me instead of me listening to a cd of her singing.

My question is does anyone know of a 16 channel mixing desk for about £600 that is a lot better sound quality than the soundcraft f1? If the soundcraft is good then I wanna go a bit further and get an even better sounding mixer. I know souncraft have released a new EPM series mixer with their excellent GB30 preamps in, the same preamps they have in the big touring mixing desk but I dont know how good the sound quality is of the new range.

Also which would be the better overall sound quality out of a mackie 1604vlz pro and a soundcraft fx16 mixer? Any ideas who actually has the better sounding preamps?