I guess people have doubts over Ableton mixing, but its nice to know the ins-&-outs of that software...
Yup....i would think that you need to spend more time preparing an ableton mix that you do for CD or vinyl and if you take enough care you get good results as regards the beatmatchin. Its not just as simple as pushing a button and they are beatmatched. There are a few tiny mistakes on the last ableton mix i put out (this is the second). The quality of sound with ableton is definately good....esp compared to mixin on a DJM600 for listening ouf of club. Allen & Heaths are a little better quality. One difficulty is that if u dont have a midicontoller, only mouse and keyboard you dont have as nice control over the levels as you do on a mixer.
basically for doin a straight mix with beatmatchin similar tunes...dont bother with ableton...vinyl and cd to some extent looks better and feels better
if you want to spend time crafting a mix with contrasting and complimentary sounds, beats and styles...ableton is your boy!
There are other options out also.....finyl scratch which allows u to play audiofiles through a platter that you controll from your turntable....also Fruityloops has just released decadance...but not sure about that yet.