[jpk]

You want to look for a toro super recycler. The deck and blade design is optimized for mulching. As a plus, the personal pace power drive is beyond awesome. You want to look for the cast aluminum deck models, not the stamped steel ones they sell at home depot, you really need to go to a dealer. They may even be able to let you "test drive" one to see how well it works on your lawn and how well you like it.
I would not give up on using my old Honda HR214SX because it still ran. I had the optional mulching blade, but even so, I had to mulch using the lower speed on the power drive. Even so, it the grass was heavy it would clump up.
A work colleague was moving back to France and had to get rid of his 5 or 6 year old toro, so I picked it up real cheap. I can't believe how much faster I can get the lawn done with the toro. More power, faster power drive, and it blasts through mulching even heavy grass with ease. The Honda bags better, so I'll use it in the fall for leaf pickup, but for normal mowing it's the toro.