George

What about the NEW Yamaha MG series with the XU (they have with Effects and without, the XU is the model difference) (Excellent Effects, compression, and USB interface).
This models are with in your budget....check them out, I have a friend that got a Allen & Heat Zed series 14 ch, and we compare them earlier on a nice big ballroom with the same speaker system,
well, he owns now a Yamaha MG12XU.