Nono, I’m not comparing the pre’s to yamahas. Wow, that would be quite the insult! The preamps are good, no doubt. They remind me of the DigiCo desks, a tad mellow sounding, but good. But the Midas Pro, and Vi desks are just in a different league concerning the pre’s.
The beautiful thing about the Vi desks, is that everything on them sounds fantastic. Pres, Filters, EQ, Gate, Comp, Deesser, and gorgeus reverbs, so you get the mix right faster in my experience. To be fair the desk is many times the price of the iLive, so no competition in bang for the buck. The workflow is probably the easiest out there, I have had lots of engineers flying within minutes, so I’m quite surprised you feel that way 
