Direct to tape tone machines

[stratman_dup1]

Sorry for the cross post, I won't make a habit of it but I know there are several folks who hang out here and not in the guitar forum that could help. Originally posted in guitar forum: Just curious what your experiences with the direct recording tools such as line 6 pod, yamaha dg stomp etc... I NEVER thought I would like one of these but I finally found a music store that had a POD setup to play with and I actually found I liked the tone. Not quite the same as a good miked amp but very usable imo. I haven't been able to find any of the others in town to preview and after playing with the POD I'm kinda jonesen to get one, especially now that line 6 is offering a $100.00 rebate!! But I'd like your opinions on the other boxes as well, I play mainly funked up blues but I like many other styles such as country, raggae, latin etc.. Plus I'll be using the box with acoustic quite a bit as well so one that includes some acoustic stuff would be good, but not necessary. For those that have played with some of the different boxes, which do you think has the best tube amp tone overall. The effects section is nice but mainly what I want is to get a really killer tone to tape, if the effects are great also that's a bonus but good tone is my #1 priority. And I'm also not much into spending hours trying to come up with new sounds, my main live rig consits of a Crate Vintage 5212 tube amp, a Boss Blues driver and a Vox Wah to give you an idea of the tone I prefer. As you can see, not much into effects but it would be nice to have some to experiment with. So what do you think, the POD, Stomp, new Behringer and Digitech units look decent too. Any and all help/opinions would be appreciated.