This will save you money later. A phanthom power supply alone can cost a few hundred dollars. Some consoles do not even have a way to interface external phanthom power supplies. Phanthom power is needed to drive active direct boxes. Whether you'll be using a consoles mic or line inputs keep in mind that they way the front end handles transient response is another most important consideration.
Transients are severe peaks in audio level.
They happen too fast to even be seen on most VU meters. They are most commonly caused by very percussive sounds. Drums and percussive instruments and also acoustic piano are all very transient sounds. When a transient sound hits the front end of your console, if the level exceeds the the headroom of the mic or line amplifiers the result will be distortion. The greater the amount of headroom a console offers, the wider the range of transient response.