What would you guys say is the best home tube amp for playing at low to moderate volumes? Cost isn’t an issue (within reason!)

The answer to this question depends on a few factors..

  1. Whats ur living situation like
  2. What kind of tone are you after
  3. Do u plan on gigging, or playing with a drummer at all?
  4. Combo or Stack?
  5. Whats the Max cost your willing to pay?

Either way, I'm gonna go ahead and answer ur question with all these factors in mind.

First, I know u specified that ur looking for toobs, but If volume is ur main concern u should totally look into digital modeling. Personally I prefer the Helix/HX stuff, but u should look into Kemper, AxeFx, Quad Cortex etc and see what suits u the best. You can use these 100% silently with headphones or run them quietly (or VERY loudly) through a Powered Cab or a PA Speaker, or even through an interface and studio moniters. And don't get me confused I have a boner for toob amps, but I usually end up playing through my HX stomp when I'm practicing at home.

Secondly consider attenuation and loadboxes. I don't have a lot of actually experience with this irl, but I've done a lot of research on it. You could probably totally get away running a 100 watt amp through an OX Box or Two Notes Captor X in a small apartment as long as u use the IRs. You could maybe also get away with a 50 or even a 100 watt amp as long u keep an attenuator on depending on a ur specific living situation. If you have a basement and little bit of space between u and ur neighbor this could work. But I haven't either of these ideas yet son take this with a grain of salt lol.

Finally here are some actually anwser to ur original question lol:

  1. Marshall Class 5 & Marshall Studio Series Amps. All of these amps come in head and combo forms. Class 5 is 5 watts and plexi/bluesbreaker-esque. There are 3 amps in the Studio line the Vintage which a plexi, the classic which is a JCM800, and the 2525 which is a Silver Jubilee. All of the studio series amps are switchable between 5 and 20 watts.
  2. Fender Champ clone, Princeton, Deluxe Reverb, Super Sonic 22. Champ is 5 watts, Princeton is 15 or sometimes 12, Deluxe Reverb is 22, Super Sonic 22 is similar to a deluxe except its also not. Some people really swear by them. Another Option is a Peavy classic 20 its fender-esque but has its own vibe and also has a good DI Out on the back.
  3. Metal/High Gain: Mesa Boogie Mark V(25/10 watts), or Recto-verb(20 Watts). Engl Iron Ball. Diezal vh4 micro (30 Watts) Peavy 6505+ Mini (20 watts) EVH 5150III (15 watts) This is the type of amp I know the least abt, but I know that these are all good options.
  4. Orange Rocker 15, and tbh check out the Crush Pro Series. They're solid-state but very tube like and I highly recommend them. Cr120 was my main amp head for a long time. Oh Also the New Super Crush 100 is great and has an inbuilt DI with IRs.
  5. Vox Ac15, its a fucking classic that's all I have to say abt that.
/r/GuitarAmps Thread