channel strips

[Tony Scharf]

Ok, so I am starting to loose faith in the concept of having a
mixer-free setup using only the computer for my mixing.  It seams to
me that about what I would spend on 24 input channels of lower quality
(via a MOTU setup of one kind or another) I could also use a dedicated
analog mixer for outside the box, and a dedicated 2-channel input of
much higher quality.  Plus, becoming a believer in outboard
compression and EQ is driving me back to a world of writting first and
recording last.

Anyone have any experience with the channel strips that are out there?
 I was particularly looking at the SSL Xlogic Alpha Channel.

suggestions?

Tony