PRS Archon 50 - Seems to get alot of love, yet under the radar?? Hidden Gem?

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napalmdeath

napalmdeath

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I found an import 50 watt head dirt cheap.. They seem to get some love, but never had them under my radar.. Only complaints I see are from noise in the effects loops. Any truth to this? I see them described in many ways - Marshall meets Diezel, 5150 meets Recto, and the common them is a big punchy low end. How's the master? Is it worth looking at the USA's over the imports? I've also read that the imports sound better, if that's possible..
 
Archons are really nice amps. I have a USA 100 watt. Not sure how it compares to the imports but I imagine the USA ones are built better. Sound wise they're probably pretty similar.

The loop on mine is absolutely garbage and terribly noisy. They had a fix for it that I never got completed. People online constantly post about fx loop noise on PRS amps. I don't believe the MT15 or MT100 are any better.
 
The USA amps are killer--some of my favorites. I didn't think the import 50 captured that tone or aggression at all.
 
I had a US one when they first came out and was impressed. Flipped it b/c is wasn’t really my cup but I have to think the RT crowd would really like it. Plenty of gain, pretty tight (too much so for me) and I know it’s gay but the clean channel is great too. Never used the loop tho
 
I had a USA 100 Watt Achon and it was one of my favorite high gain amps. Mix between a pissed off 5150 and Rectifier, but with an incredible clean channel. Mine had a weird issue where the volume would drop out, especially when you're really blasting it. Bruce Egnater had it for months and couldn't figure it out. He also said there was a ground loop and flaw in the circuit design. It would have cost a ton to fix it, so it's gone now.
 
vultures said:
I had a USA 100 Watt Achon and it was one of my favorite high gain amps. Mix between a pissed off 5150 and Rectifier, but with an incredible clean channel. Mine had a weird issue where the volume would drop out, especially when you're really blasting it. Bruce Egnater had it for months and couldn't figure it out. He also said there was a ground loop and flaw in the circuit design. It would have cost a ton to fix it, so it's gone now.
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Yikes! Did you ever reach out to PRS?
 
Rising Farce said:
Yes. I've owned several USA Archons over the years, mostly 100-watters. I sold the import 50 in a hurry.
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Did the USA's have any effects loop issues? Seems to be a widespread problem. I've even read many that still had problems in the so-called "mod fix" PRS had later in 2015 and up. I'd love to pick up a used USA, they pop up cheap, but, they seem plagued with FX loop problems, and that's a big no-go for me. I hear nothing but great things about their tone!
 
They sound great, and are a great option for the money.

Gain channel is modern and pretty tight, great cleans.

I've never encountered one with fx loop issues in the wild, but like everyone else have heard the stories
 
If I recall, the USA loop issues were fixed in 2016 or so. I've had multiple Archons over the years. The USA 100 watt is amazing followed by the USA 50 watt. I tried the Indo version a couple times and sold them pretty quick.
 
tallcoolone said:
I had a US one when they first came out and was impressed. Flipped it b/c is wasn’t really my cup but I have to think the RT crowd would really like it. Plenty of gain, pretty tight (too much so for me) and I know it’s gay but the clean channel is great too. Never used the loop tho
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What’s a clean channel ?
 
napalmdeath said:
Yikes! Did you ever reach out to PRS?
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Bruce reached out to PRS directly, yes. He traced the schematic a bit, but it ended up never getting truly fixed. The 100w do indeed have the FX loop noise issues, even with the "fix" they have which is removing C2 and replacing R6 with a 47k 1w resistor.

Edit: Also had an issue with a bulging cap that had to be addressed. Main filter on the DC heater circuit. The guess on why it happened was insufficient heat rating, but never 100% confirmed. Technically still tested fine on an ESR meter.
archon-bulging-cap.jpg
 
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Code001 said:
Bruce reached out to PRS directly, yes. He traced the schematic a bit, but it ended up never getting truly fixed. The 100w do indeed have the FX loop noise issues, even with the "fix" they have which is removing C2 and replacing R6 with a 47k 1w resistor.

Edit: Also had an issue with a bulging cap that had to be addressed. Main filter on the DC heater circuit. The guess on why it happened was insufficient heat rating, but never 100% confirmed. Technically still tested fine on an ESR meter.
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It's a shame. These amps sound pretty good, and have a unique voicing, (which I like). Some say they sound Recto, but I personally hear it's own thing. I'm tired of cookie cutter amps, be it a Marshall derivative or Recto, I want something with its own thing. I was hoping the Lynx 50 would be that, but it was a complete hot mess.
 
napalmdeath said:
It's a shame. These amps sound pretty good, and have a unique voicing, (which I like). Some say they sound Recto, but I personally hear it's own thing. I'm tired of cookie cutter amps, be it a Marshall derivative or Recto, I want something with its own thing. I was hoping the Lynx 50 would be that, but it was a complete hot mess.
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I own both a lynx 50 and an early usa archon. The archon fx loop is very picky on what I use. It sounds like white noise.

The lynx 50 is pretty good. I prefer channel 1 but anything on channel 2 or with the high gain switch enabled created ground loop issues. I ultimately solved it with a suhr buffer/splitter to my gate and the second output to the front of the amp, but it's still a pretty noisy amp
 
PiggySmallz said:
I own both a lynx 50 and an early usa archon. The archon fx loop is very picky on what I use. It sounds like white noise.

The lynx 50 is pretty good. I prefer channel 1 but anything on channel 2 or with the high gain switch enabled created ground loop issues. I ultimately solved it with a suhr buffer/splitter to my gate and the second output to the front of the amp, but it's still a pretty noisy amp
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Is it a new production Lynx? I didn't really notice any issues with ground loop or noise on the Bad Cat, it just had an absurd amount of gain on channel 2 that was out of control. It was woofy, (definitely not tight, like they claim), the gain was worse than an EVH red channel. It was over the top on 1. I couldn't box it up and return it fast enough.
 
napalmdeath said:
Is it a new production Lynx? I didn't really notice any issues with ground loop or noise on the Bad Cat, it just had an absurd amount of gain on channel 2 that was out of control. It was woofy, (definitely not tight, like they claim), the gain was worse than an EVH red channel. It was over the top on 1. I couldn't box it up and return it fast enough.
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Yeah its pretty new. Picked it up last year brand new from proaudiostar. Just noisy. I think the ground loop was from my 4 cable method. I run the gain around 9 o'clock. It's definitely got way more than is usable but it was a lot tighter than my SLO 30. It can get woofy depending on how you dial it in. I used to think it was a dark amp but it definitely has some sizzle and mids if you dial in more presence and mids
 
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