Well, that was a quick change…got a great offer on a Crest XR20, so I’ll give that a shot and see 
AND scratch that! The eBay seller cancelled my order and refunded it due the the mixer being ‘out of stock?’ Ok then
honestly in the states it seems it’s easier to find a 240 than a 160. I’ve had my eye out for a while, even though I’m not 100% sure I want one again. 240’s in good shape are regularly cheaper than 160’s actually (sometimes in not so great shape). and more channels are rarely a bad thing, right? assuming you have the space…
I loved my 240 when I had it. that era of Midas Venice was excellent.
edit: and then saw you bought a Crest, lol
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Except I didn’t…some mixup with the seller. My guess is he sold it and forgot to pull the listing
ugh! what a bummer. Crest XR20 would’ve been solid.
if I were after a Venice, I’d consider this one (probably with a $900 offer):
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I’ll have to take some measurements and rethink everything to make a 240 fit!
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If you can fit a 160, you’ll fit a 240 
Size does NOT matter. Then again…
The 160 is huge compared to a Mackie 1402, although there is a 2 channels difference (not talking about direct outs, inserts, aux, FX etc…).
Got mine for a reasonable price as a 240 was too big.
I also saw they had a FW and usb versions of these.
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I struggled with mixer decision for a long time. For anyone looking for a specific sound on a budget:
My main genres are minimal techno but also chillwave/synthwave. So I wanted something that I could crunch & get lofi-ish results out of.
I settled on a Mackie CR-1604 (non-VLZ) and found one for $250~ shipped on ebay in immaculate condition.
I always heard accolades about this specific mixer & upon receiving it and jamming the first few times…it seems to be true. There’s always been a legacy it seems to this line, and as soon as the VLZ series was introduced, everyone began shying away from it.
I run an RME UFX as my interface (and have been doing so without a mixer for years). Upon using the Mackie, I found I was getting WAY better mixes so much easier from my hardware than sending everything to Ableton and mixing there.
I know the CR-1604 is rather limiting (quite dated) and the EQs are close to almost unusable but for someone who does most of their EQ in the machines and only need slight adjustments from the mixer, this thing is perfect for me.
While I’d love a Midas or a higher quality digital mixer, this thing is perfect for the price and should tide me over as I get better with handling a mix through something that sums like this.
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i feel like going insane trying to find a suitable mixer 
i need at least 4 stereo ins and 2 mono ins, but also want to be able to send each channel to any of 3 external stereo outs. seems like i’d have to go for a bigger mixer input-wise to satisfy the latter requirement… also feels dumb to pay for like 8 mic preamps cause i don’t need any.
In use a xone 96 and it’s almost it: 6 stereo inputs, 2 master outputs and 1 recording and one monitoring, but all getting the same mix. Are you looking for different mixes on the outputs?
yeah i’ve been eyeing the xone 96 from time to time. it would actually fulfil my requirements if i exploited the cue function as an additional send. other bonus features are of course multitrack recording, built-in filter and distortion, but the biggest con is the price… might just have to bite the bullet at some point.
basically i just want to be able to route any channel to 1) the analog heat 2) a sampler 3) a delay/reverb fx unit.
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1 and 2 are combo jacks and can be joined as stereo in interface
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Xr16 w midi controller would work. I’m thinking the xr18 is the way I’m going for my next mixer
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which midi controller have you had in mind for that? feels like an ipad might be ideal.
I’d prob look at xtouch first. Decide if I need the deep integration or not (which I probably don’t but might still want. Digital labels are nice) otherwise any programmable controller with faders should work (need to double check)
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Thinking about buying a Mackie 1604 and trying to get my head around the routing options. I don’t have a whole lot of synths but if I want to I’d need a mixer. First reason I opted for a mixer is the fact that the analog signal from the AR gets flattened when i feed it directly to the OT. Still I like to be able to sample and loop the output of the AR live into the OT. I also have a Heat that I for now intend to use as an aux send/return. As of now I imagine I’d be able to use the 1-2 and 3-4 Auxes for sending to the Heat for distortion and to the OT for looping. Would I also be able to send the wet return of the Heat to the OT?
Would you be able to wing it using a TLA Fat track? I’ve been eyeing this one many times but now have a bit too much gear (or at least individual outs) to make it work. Still lusting for that warm tube sound :).
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Those have pipped my interest a few times too, but for the same reasons as you say, and not enough channels to buy one.
I definitely think there is a gap in the market for a synth mixer, plenty of stereo channels, not too big, performance focussed, and creative eq/character possibilities.
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Do you know of one that is available?