John, I wouldn’t call it insane, as the person who has to be happy is you (even after being served your eviction notice for being too loud). I have an 800 watt amp with a tube preamp (seen in my profile picture), though nearly all my practice is through a small EBS combo amp. I’m in a small (California) townhome so I don’t get to fully experience its capabilities, but it’s nice to play through it every now and again and, like you, I have aspirations and bass dreams of playing outside of the home one day (in some capacity). Fortunately, a good friend gave me a really good deal on this Demeter amp or I would have in my opinion, smartly, waited until my playing got a little closer to performance level, but it sounds like you’re ready to pull the trigger so, do your homework, look for great deals, practice your butt off, and make yourself happy.
The Watts happily wait in the outlet in the wall until you want them.
NIIIICE
@John_E Keep in mind that they both have XLR and Stereo out, so depending where you play and your setup, you could effectively use the 40 as your pre-amp into another device.
Also, the 40 does have a foot pedal input. They both do. I think the only real difference between the two besides the wattage is that the 800 has an extra 10" speaker and the speakers are Eminence Ceramic Magnet in the 800 and Fender Special Design in the 40. As to which of those is better and by how much, I have no idea. 
If you can try both, then definitely do that! But you know how this goes. You’ll buy one and then Fender will announce a Studio 300 or something.
I like the idea of having something small and very portable with my base tone (in my case I use Line 6 preamps), and being able to plug it into whatever power amp is available.
That was excellent 
Cheers
Joe
Another excellent reply 
Indeed this will happen 1.5 days after I buy either as 300 would seem to be perfect.
So I have learned 2 things here through all the great advice and feedback, for which i say THANK YOU ALL…
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The Rumble 40 Studio is essentially everything i was looking for / need for now, gives me lots of tone options without committing to a more pricey amp/cab setup that locks me into one thing. This keeps me from having to make that more ‘singluar’ decision, and does it in a form factor (amp vs. DAW, pedal(s), etc) that makes sense for me.
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I need to stop asking for advice here cause its going to cost me money, hahahaha. Ordered the Studio 40!
thanks to all, really good advice and learnings here
That’s what you determined? Dang, the actual advice was get an SVT and SVT 810 cab!
Sound choice. Make sure you let us know what you think of it when it arrives. I think it will pair well with your new bass too.
yeah, yeah, that is what i was trying to talk myself out of!
I think that will be a ‘down the line’ have if/when i ever decide to play out.
Call this a ‘smart choice gap filler’, haha.
I’m kidding of course…but not really!
LOL, I solved my latency problem. While Reaper was using ASIO and had no problems with latency at all, all of my standalone apps - amp sims, the Darkglass sim, etc - were still using Windows Audio.
Switching them to ASIO too gives acceptable latency, even with USB2, and even with a relatively high sample buffer (which it isn’t using anyway) for live use.
No surprise, but I was wondering what was up, and how I had no recording latency but the things were so bad with the standalone apps.
Here is an example of a SVT plugin (plugin alliance has ANY plugin for $30 deal today if you guys are interested. Grabbed the SVT that is usually $149)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1htTeJMkPLEd9WwMXRY_hoqlErfppK4Vc/view?usp=drivesdk
I swear if you recorded one in the studio it would have same tone!
It’s true. Amp sims are as good or better than the real thing at this point.
except the 800RB plugin dammit! it’s the official one too.
I’m having a hard time finding a GK sim I like. Audified’s GK Amplification 2 demo didn’t do it for me - sounded way muddy through the cabsim.
Wow. The SVT-VR sounds really good. I think I still like Kuassa Cerberus’ tube sound a little better but the SVT-VR sim is super solid, definitely recommended too - I bought it.
Here’s a comparison:
Without amp sim (level is lower as the amp sims are all adding a bit):
Kuassa Cerberus:
SVT-VR into EQ’d 8x10s:
No amp sim, into a Darkglass Vintage Microtubes Ultra sim with the distortion turned off, into its built-in cab sim:
I love how the VMT on its own sounds just awesome into a cabsim, better than many of the amps out there
800RB was on sale few days earlier, I grabbed it for 30$.
maybe it will go back on sale tomorrow then
But wouldn’t that mean that it’s failing at being a sim?
Just joking. I know what you mean.