Good Mixer or Mic Pre\'s?

I will most likely get flamed for this, but what I am using is the Behringer UB2442fx-pro, which ran me >$600 CAD. It sounds good, is durable, has lots of routing options, and is the only mixer for under a grand that I'm aware of with direct outs on the channels. I like the preamps, they are just about noiseless, and the eq is nice and musical. Also, I route everything through my mixer (as in I plug my 001's main outs into stereo channel 15/16) and mute the tracks I am recording, using the mixers' 4 sub groups to set the headphone mix. Zero latency.

have you considered allen and heathn consoles the mix wizard which i harte myself but otrhers like it and the gl2200 live console but can be used for recording

I will chime in on the cause for a mixer. You get routing options galore with a mixer that you wouldn't get with a front end like the Digimax. Although I am not familiar with the quality of the Digimax, I know that with my mixer I have a front end for microphones, 4+2 bus routing that I send to my headphone distribution system, and true zero latency monitoring. I will then add the Digimax LT or Octapre in the future to get the additional ins to my 002. Of course, your needs may not be the same as mine, but I find that having a mixer is a very valueable tool for my studio.