AC15 head vs combo

[hamerfan]

Does anyone have experience with both the Vox AC15 head and combo? They're the same price and I'm trying to figure out which is better for bedroom/studio playing. I don't gig and only play in my office/home recording studio but rarely have an opportunity to crank an amp (I have a family, neighbors, etc). Am I better off with the head which has the attenuator or is the master volume on the combo workable enough?

I have an empty guitar enclosure which I intend to fill with, probably, a Neo Creamback (I'd love an alnico gold but they're pretty pricey). I like the idea of getting the combo and having the versatility of the built in greenback (or alnico blue if the X model) or the external creamback whereas with the head I would only have the creamback option. That said, if the combo isn't usable at lower volumes then it doesn't matter how versatile the set up is if I can't use it due to volume constraints.

Any suggestions?

For bedroom use and small studio application I recommend this
https://www.tcelectronic.com/product.html?modelCode=P0EB8

 

[BMKE]

Thank you everyone for your input. I was hoping someone had experience with the head as I'm curious how well the attenuator works. I'm not super interested in pedal version at the moment, while they're certainly interesting it's not where I want to apply my budget at the moment. In the past, I've looked at the TEch21 Moptop and that's pretty cool for a pedal but not what I need at this time.

 

[ehdwuld]

I am sorry I was unaware of attenuation on the amp

I will have to look that up

EDIT

I looked
it dont

the AC4 is a 4 watt combo with a 12 inch speaker

but none have attenuation on board

dang it

 

[beaubrummels]

Also FWIW, all pedals are not the same. The Tech21 is circuit-based emulation, it's Tech21's common base circuit design with the components tuned to emulate a particular range of amps. The TC Electronic is a modeler where they modeled each section of an AC30 TB. The Wampler ThirtySomething is literally the AC30 TB circuit done in all surface mount components. Etc.

 

[BMKE]

As far as I'm aware the only Voxes with attenuators are the AC15/AC30 heads.

Noted about the variety of pedal options.

Mostly, it's me goofing around and sometimes recording my bad music so an amp is the better tool overall. I go hot and cold with modeling/profiling. It seems to be if you want high gain and lots of effects those work much better. Ideally, I'd like to have my guitar and an amp I enjoy and call it a day. I'm not sure that's realistic (plus who doesn't a few good pedals now and again) but I like the idea that the ACs have reverb and tremolo built-in. At the moment I have a little Nextone stage which I am always using in the lower power modes and it's only 40W (solid state).

 

[Rex_Rocker]

The thing about the Vox sound is that there is a lot of interaction between preamp, poweramp, and speakers. Everything saturates and distorts a little in the usual AC30 signal chain... at least if we're in the same page thinking the Vox thing is kinda the Brian May sound, and not the AC30 just being very bright, kinda thin, and LOUD at reasonable master volume knob levels. So that's why modelers don't always get it right. They might get the sound going, but the feel is certainly not going to be the same. IR's, for example, do not distort the way a 15W Blue does. Not sure how much modelers are going to get the Transformer about to explode thing either.

There are some plugins that simulate speaker distortion, though. But that's as far as recording goes.

 

[BMKE]

Rex, that's been my experience too