I've been poking along with my tube amp (a Peavey Delta Blues 15) and a couple of other solid-state amps. Totally not a pro -- I just like great sound. I come from a background of classic tube amps like the Fender Deluxe and old Marshall/Sun amps. I'm not a fan of littering the floor with pedals or dorking with the signal chain so I wind up forgoing a lot of sound sweetening because my go-to amp just works better when I plug directly into it (Strat and Paul).
I've tried three PODs, the most recent of which is a HD500. I want to stress that I am trying to push this HD500 into my existing amp. Even with a spaghetti mess of wires criss-crossing the floor, I find the sound clipped and colored in strange ways.
Now to the question: A friend is running a Kemper through a PA and getting wonderful results. My question is this: What gear would I get rid of and what gear would I need to make this both a practice/recording setup as well as a reasonable gigging setup? Power amp (cost)? Monitor speakers (cost)? Active monitor speakers?
Thanks in advance for your recommendations!