A little follow-up… took forever because those Yamahas were on back order.
Got the Yamaha THR-30II. It’s a well thought out amp that looks great and has great features, but in terms of the sound… the modeling is so-so. Low-mid gain stuff was pretty decent. Honestly, I found a lot of the amps not having as much gain on tap as I expected based on my experience with the Axe Fx. Being a fractal user, my expectations should have been lower overall.
The main issue, however, is it really sounds like it is coming out of 3.5” speakers. Again, it was unrealistic to expect otherwise, but I mistakenly thought maybe cabinet emulation and EQ would creare the illusion of a bigger sound at low volumes. Honestly, I vastly prefer the sound of my old Crate GT15 with an analog circuit and 1x8 speaker. I understand it can’t outperform my Axe FX 3, but it was apparently too much to ask for it to equal or beat my old, cheapo Crate amp.
I then bought the Vox VX15, my runner-up. It is more of a traditional amp without a lot of bells and whistles. It has a tuner, but it only tunes to the pitch of E, which is better than nothing but really not what I expected. In terms of sound, it is a lot better than the Yamaha. That is mostly due to the larger speaker and cabinet construction. It also handles volume much better, which again, I shouldn’t be surprised at given the basic physics. The tone is good enough that I won’t miss my crappy Crate GT15.
I’m returning the Yamaha and decided to order the Vox VX50, which, to my surprise, is the exact same size as the VX15 but has more wattage, an 8” speaker instead of 6.5”, and the “nu-tube” technology. For a “50 watt” model, I was expecting a 10 or 12 inch speaker, but I guess I’m a little out of touch. If nothing else, the larger speaker should make it even better, and I am curious if that nu-tube makes a noticeable difference. I’ll post my findings later.