You're right about all of it, but I don't gig anymore. I'm a stay at home dad that loves to play and have good tone while doing so. I love my stage rig, but it's just too much now. I figure that the 1500 can do everything I need it to (although I wish the FX modeling was the same as the HD500x) and not take up a ton of space like my gear now does. Also, the digital component means that my kids can't just walk by and tweak the dials the screw everything up as long as I have my presets saved to the cloud. I only have two things that I need to know that I can't read about...1) Is it good at low volumes? (which you have answered for me) and 2) Is the tone, overall, good? (which I'll probably have to find a way to demo to be sure)