I agree and I'm not saying there is no difference but for the non-muso in the crowd its more difficult for him/her to notice these nuances. By no means am I an expert in this but it's just a view from someone who is not as experienced as the rest of the guys/gals here.ez wrote: Haha.
I think most people would struggle to tell the difference in sound between a decent modeller and a tube amp IF you only get to listen to it being played on a certain 'setting'. The difference comes in when you play harder and softer, turn the guitar's volume up and down. Astonishingly, some people do actually use those not-on-10 and not only to kill the sound between songs. This is why the question of headroom is being asked and this is why people play valve amps. Because the headroom determines the loudest clean sound you can coax out of an amp AND good valve amps can be used without pedals. You can 'switch' from clean to dirty using guitar controls. That's why they're there. These tricks don't work on modellers though. Not yet, anyway.
However the best clean tone I have heard is from the Two Rock amps, plenty of headroom.