There are also a lot of great boutique players in the marketplace now...I like Victoria Amps a lot, and Budda, and the small Vox amps do rock.  I think you need to think about several things: 1) will you be moving the amp a lot (e.g., playing gigs) or will you leave it in one place? (A Marshall stack is not easy to cart around) 2) what sounds and features do you want (tremolo, clean/overdrive channel, master/slave out (if you want to use a second amp), amp modeling sounds, etc).  3) how much volume do you want? (I'm a big fan of using very small amps that can be miked through the house sound system if you need to - the smaller amps saturate more easily, making it easier to get the sound you want without blowing out your ears) 4) how much money do you want to spend?