Always puzzled when I read things like this. I have no issue at all with my Mini Rec 25 in the Modern Mode with playing at lower volumes. Yes, it gets loud quickly on the dial, but "unusable" and"uncontrollable" do not compute. There also seem to be a lot of misconceptions about amps with multiple power modes, and how to use them. The 10 watt mode is not a "lower volume" mode. It's a completely different way of handling the power section, which sounds significantly different and so it must be re-adjusted for that mode. Just flipping from one power mode to the other and saying it doesn't sound good, kind of misses the purpose. The extreme example of this would be something like the TA15. With three power stages, each significantly different in feel, touch and tone, you have tons of tone shaping ability. But it is NOT just 5 watt for quiet volumes, 25 for loud, 15 for in the middle. It's not that at all. 25 watt sounds best at low volume for SOME kinds of tones, and 5 watts cranked is best for others. Etc. Another example: When I auditioned a Mesa Mark V, when I was playing the IIC+ and IV modes and with some gain, even at LOW volumes, the 90 watt setting sounded the best. 10 and 45 watt sounded and felt much different. 45 watt was (of course) not much quieter at all, but felt and sounded different. For more punch and tightness, even at bedroom volumes, 90 watts sounded best.
There's a lot of good info in this thread. I too have had 30 watt amps that needed to be loud to sound good. Heck one 5 watter I had needed to be cranked up to sound good. And I've played 50 and 100 watters that sounded good at low volume. As to the other aspects of the original question, this post is long enough so I'll share some of my thoughts in another post.
Now I just need to find ways of funding crazy amounts of spending on gear!
