I hear ya on this. Music equipment is a huge investment - it's not really as easy as just trying everything out - you could go to guitar center and sit next to a few 11 year olds pumping up the volume next to you while scratching at the strings, and hopefully feel relaxed enough to call that an adequate amp-test, but really what I've found is that unless you take the amp home and play it when you're relaxed in a quiet room, there's no good way to test out what tones you like.
I've scoured the internet for reviews on amps, pedals, sample sounds, opinions, ... for every 10 that give an amp a 10 star rating, there's 2 or 3 who give the same amp a 2 because it doesn't meet their expectation - and you're left with that feeling of "well, if that many people like it, it must be a good tone", but you're always conflicted because there's the possibility that the 2 low ratings might actually be right. I found the whole process somewhat intimidating, especially when you're about to make a 1K investment, like I just did. Experience is the only the true factor for satisfaction, and unless you have a lot of friends with amps you can borrow, its gonna be a long road.
I decided for myself that I was going to aim for two distinct tones (3 if you count clean). A heavy blues tone, like Jimi Hendrix style gain, and a metal tone. Because no one in my family who would want to hear that kind of music, I opted to leave that tone for direct recording - I purchased a BOSS ME-70, and I rely on some computer plugins. For the Blues tones, I wanted a real tube amp, so I bit the bullet (and I"m still not sure I made the right choice, but what is done is done) and purchased a combo amp - the Peavey Classic 50 212. That way I could at least play at small parties, the kind of music that the family could at least bear
and should I desire to pull some metallica out, I can always route my ME-70 thru the peavey for the metal gain, so effectively I can get both tones I'm looking for.
But all that said, I had to invest in two expenses - totalling about 1,200 USD when all is said and done.
The BOSS ME 70, unlike the GT-8 and or GT-10 doesn't require a pilots license - also something I was hoping to avoid - it has lots of knobs - physical things you actually turn! the user's manual is like 5 pages long (counting only the English version!), so it's not too intimidating.
Long story short, I know what you mean on getting the tone you want front. Unless you're able to experience it first hand in the type of music you want to play, the reviews you can read don't usually lend themselves well to what you're trying to get tone-wise, so reviews are difficult to trust, and going to GC to test the equipment is not easy (at least for me), so making an investment and hoping for the best, or willing to take it back or sell for another item is probably the most bang for the buck way about getting what you ultimately want.
just my 2 cents.
