I routinely crank my 100W up to a quarter to a third of full on, at least when no one else is home.
More than that and I'd have to leave the room, but it's not crazy loud at the ~ 25W level in a large room in a house. Anything with a master volume will sound fine at lower levels, but you do miss the power-amp side overdrive, so the tonal character isn't quite the same. What I'd do is, go check out some amps, all in the same room and at the same volume level that you'd like to play with at home, and see what you like best.
That's all for tube amps. In my experience more headroom is better with solid-state amps, because you don't want them to distort. If you want distortion, you use effects pedals.