Is allen and heath ZED-428 a good choice?

[harrier]

Our church have outgrown our current mixer and need something with at least 18 mono channels and a couple of stereo. We probably need about 6 aux outputs as we use two foldback mixes, a mix for a creche and we also record the service. we only need one aux for effects because it is only ever used to add a little to the instruments.
In other settings i have used an allen and heath mix wizard 16.2 and been very impressed with the quality and number of options available but this is the biggest mixer in this series. The ZED-428 however looks promising and seems to have everything that we need. Is this overkill or are there other mixers out there that would give us a better performance.We are looking for something with good acoustic performance but with an acceptable price tag. on board effects are a bonus but definately not essential. we can't really afford to go much over the price of a ZED-428 which is about $1700 and cheaper is better.
The yamaha MG32/14FX looks like seriously good value and also fits our needs but is it really as good value as it appears? Any suggestions?

[jkowtko]

Call FullCompass -- you should be able to get a much better price. If you don't, send me a PM and I've give you the name of the rep that I buy through.

I have considered the Zed-428 very seriously as an upgrade from our Mackie CFX-20 into the "real mixer" world -- however for two reasons I think I'm going to move to the GL2400-24:
(1) four segment per input channel metering, I ideally want a full meter bridge, and
(2) all six auxes can be post-, since I do not have the use for pre- auxes in our theater and need all of the mix busses for signal routing.

Being able to swap fader/pot on the auxes is also a plus for the GL2400. However on the flip side, the Zed gives you channel routing to the Mono bus, whereas the GL2400 does not (you have to use your Aux 6). Otherwise I imagine the boards are the same in sound quality and almost the same in all other feature areas.

[harrier]

thanks for the advice. i know the price is probably a little skewed because i'm in the uk and had to convert the price in the first american shop i found to give a comparison! I had looked at the gl2400 but there is no way i think our budget could stretch to it and in all honesty we probably wouldn't use the extra features. i have also looked at the Yamaha MG3214FX which has a fairly similar feature set to the zed but i have no experience with yamaha mixers at all so anybodys past experience and comments would be much appreciated!

[TimmyP1955]

As you are recording, the Zed is likely the best choice. Of course there's the Zed (USB) and the ZedR (FireWire), but I expect that the R is more expensive. And don't forget that the 428 has a lot more channels than you specified, so one of the smaller ones may be a better choice (however I always advise one to get a bigger board than he thinks he'll ever need, as he'll find a way to fill it up).

Also look into the new Presonus console, which has everything the A&H has plus much more: PreSonus StudioLive