hmm i always wonder where pple get all that shit abt having to crank tube amps to hear the sweetness or the bloom of the note or the tubes being driven. we're pretty much past the age where amps didnt have a master volume and distortion came from pushing the amps power section too much.
there IS a difference when you push amps to their limit, not to get just to get a natural organic overdrive tone, but to get a fat clean sound or even a clipped clean but dirty sound which is only obtainable via a cranked amp, not via pedals and modeling amps. trust me, i've tried and pedals cant do the clipped sound at all.
thats why people who are going for rootsy type sounds or vintage rock opt for another method - which is having different amps depending on the venue you play in:
home: 5 watts
small bar: 15 watts thru 10 or 12 inch speaker
medium bar: 22watts to 30 watts (eg deluxe reverb)
large bar or stage: 35 watts and above
even if its with a heavy band, putting your clean sound at its fullest and boosting it with a pedal for the oevrdrive or distortion or even setting your master volume high and getting a reasonably cranked tone out of it, gets you a fuller tone than anything you can augment via pedals *at low volumes*
at low volumes, you can EQ all you like or add as many pedals as you like but nothing sounds as full and rich as a cranked tube amp.
the solution is just get a smaller amp to crank it up and to gig thru and mike it up.
my ideal setup for home practise is a 5watt blackheart or a champion 600 (depending on the sound you go for) and augment it with pedals.
i gig in a bar in town and i very often use my 15w pro junior cranked to 5 on the volume knob, where the amp starts to break up and it sounds great (for its size) and never too loud.