Hi, I have a question about a comparison between HiFi preamps and
mixers; I consider buying a mixer/poweramp combo for my HiFi system at
home instead of a full HiFi amp (I plug/unplug audio gear a lot, also I
hobby-DJ at times... Still, it should sound "good" in a HiFi set):

I've gone through some technical specs of mixers that were recommended
and looked for parameters that I sort of understand, such as Signal to
noise (S/N) and crosstalk between channels.

Allen&Heath, Rane and Numark mixers looked pretty good there, for
example (S/N -90 dB or better). Denon, OTOH, had S/N specified as better
-80 dB only.

So is this as important as I think it is?

What other parms determine "sound quality" on paper? I know that numbers
on paper are not everything but they certainly help to rule out some
mixers for what I want to use them. Are the THD (total harmonic
distortions) important there?

In the end I will listen to a few models, but I'd like to know how far
off (if at all) mixers are from HiFi preamps.

Price range should be 500-1000$.

Thanks for all input, cheers, Martin