Full props to you in the way you've handled this thread.
One thing that I think we all need to recognise is that no matter how much we'd like to think otherwise,
the real thing will always be better.
If the 5150 sound is the thing which gives you a chubby, then running an AFX over a 5150 is a bit of an odd choice when we have things like the power station which make recording with the real amp, just as easy as recording with the AFX.
At the risk of a shameless "plug", the Tubescreamer thread I posted recently was kinda eye-opening to me. With a fair bit of digging and tweaking, it was possible to get the FAS Boost (but not the TS808?) to sound like a real TS808. However, even when it
sounded the same, it most certainly did not
feel the same.
Would you notice a difference when playing live through a PA with other instruments at an ear-shattering volume? Probably not. Do you notice at home when jamming or recording songs? Absolutely.
I don't feel like that's a slight against Fractal because
the real thing will always be better.
Long story short: If you've got a piece of kit which gives you the exact sound you want that causes you to feel funny in your pants, then that's the bit of gear you should rock the fuck out on. When you look at it from a "make-my-genitals-tingle" perspective,
everything is important. The tone, the feel, the atmosphere in the room, the smell of tubes, hell even the way things look contribute to making your junk happy. It's purely an emotional response and some twit going: "Dude, but it sounds EXACTLY the same" is entirely irrelevant.
I'm sure your grandma can't tell the difference between a JCM800 and a 5150, but to you it's night and day right?
What I'm trying to say is that when he said:
I've found, in the several years of being part of this forum, that doing so would only lead to arguing, people saying I should have done this or that to achieve the same sound, some people saying the Axe sounds better, that I screwed something up with the Axe-fx, etc. I don't really want to go there at this point.
I get it.
If you feel good, you play good. We play music because it makes us feel good. Whatever makes you feel even gooder-er is what you should use.
Rock the fuck out of your awesome new amp man.