Hello good people,

So I've pretty much given up on ever using the PA in the garage where some guys and I practice on Fridays, and am now looking to run vocals through my 100w powered floor monitor. Problem is that when the mic is plugged right into the monitor XLR input, the output isn't loud enough.

From talking to some people, they say I would be best off with a mixer of some sort, where I can use the onboard mic preamps to bring the mic-level signal up to an acceptable level and then put it through the power amp in the monitor, so that it should be loud enough to keep up with the band.

Any recommendations on what I should use? As of right now, we will have a maximum of 2 people singing at one time, and it's only going into a 100w floor wedge, so I could get away with a 2-channel mixer like this:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/402VLZ3/

but I wonder if I'd outgrow this quickly and wish I had either bought something cheaper for the interim or gone to a larger mixer immediately.

What do you say? Am I on the right path? Should I just use an outboard mic preamp instead? If I go used, how big should it be? What brands are good (other than Mackie)? Which should be avoided?

Help would be appreciated!