Archon sucks or what?!

[moltenmetalburn]

Looking at these right now, need to off more high dollar gear and go frugal for awhile.

looking at the PRS because the clean is killer, they go for good prices, it has a 50 watt mode, (my 100 watters have been to much in my new smaller living space.)

I hear "dark" "honky" "tight" and "vh4" pushed a lot.

dark is cool, I play Diezel almost exclusively. Tight is GREAT to me, hate flub.

honky is scary. I LIKE mids, but not harsh scratch. Many say it cannot be dialed out.

Is this thing marshall or mesa topology? It seems to harken both actually. when I think about tremonti and how his rig has changed I would say they were attempting to add Bogner Uber characteristics to a mesa topology.

WHY DOES EVERYONE SELL THEM?! DOES THIS THING ACTUALLY SUCK? Just too vanilla for the price?


Will an Archon hold over a Diezel guy for a year or so?

 

[sleewell2]

i really want one. a local band we have played with a few times uses one and it sounds amazing.

 

[gtr31]

IMO it does not suck..

it can be darker with the bright switch off
with the bright switch "on" you have to watch the mids as the are more upper mids ; think Jcm800
It is tight but not stiff Like a Fryette or MKV

It does not have the low end clout of and Uberschall or Vh4 but also is much less compressed.

it does 2 sounds basically amazing cleans country/jazz/blues and modern rock . i would not pick it for a cover band playing 70s 80s stuff
if your set is Creed ,Alterbridge Three day Grace . KSE, Breaking Benjamin your good to go .

For hair metal and classic rock I think its too modern ,and for super tight metal maybe to thick sounding

 

[moltenmetalburn]

IMO it does not suck..

it can be darker with the bright switch off
with the bright switch "on" you have to watch the mids as the are more upper mids ; think Jcm800
It is tight but not stiff Like a Fryette or MKV

It does not have the low end clout of and Uberschall or Vh4 but also is much less compressed.

it does 2 sounds basically amazing cleans country/jazz/blues and modern rock . i would not pick it for a cover band playing 70s 80s stuff
if your set is Creed ,Alterbridge Three day Grace . KSE, Breaking Benjamin your good to go .

For hair metal and classic rock I think its too modern ,and for super tight metal maybe to thick sounding

thanks that is pretty articulate.

low end is fine with me, play with bassist, I respect the mix more than my ego.

I am thinking modern metal. I am coming from a Diezel Dmoll as my Number 1, and Einstein as Number 2.

looking at Archon, EVH 50 watt, Jet city JCA50H, Fryette D60, right now.

 

[andross182]

Whoever said the amp is Honky has something else going on in their signal chain, as the amp is anything but. It has great mids, but its not anywhere near Honky. You can go darker without the bright switch on the lead channel, and the EQ of the amp is amazing. I recommend setting everything at Noon and starting from there, I have yet to have a bad sound out of mine.

 

[Wizard of Ozz]

Not a fan.

As an owner/user of the Diezel Herbert and VH4... I don't hear the Diezel tone in the Archon. YMMV.

Its more of a hard/modern rock amp to me... not my voicing for what I like in a metal amp.

 

[mchn13]

IMO it does not suck..

it can be darker with the bright switch off
with the bright switch "on" you have to watch the mids as the are more upper mids ; think Jcm800
It is tight but not stiff Like a Fryette or MKV

It does not have the low end clout of and Uberschall or Vh4 but also is much less compressed.

it does 2 sounds basically amazing cleans country/jazz/blues and modern rock . i would not pick it for a cover band playing 70s 80s stuff
if your set is Creed ,Alterbridge Three day Grace . KSE, Breaking Benjamin your good to go .

For hair metal and classic rock I think its too modern ,and for super tight metal maybe to thick sounding

thanks that is pretty articulate.

low end is fine with me, play with bassist, I respect the mix more than my ego.

I am thinking modern metal. I am coming from a Diezel Dmoll as my Number 1, and Einstein as Number 2.

looking at Archon, EVH 50 watt, Jet city JCA50H, Fryette D60, right now.

I have nothing against the archon, but for metal or rock, the d60 will crush everything on that list. Played mine next to an evh 50, and and the evh sounded like a hollow can of bees. You may even defect from diezel...

 

[DeathbyButterslax]

I couldn't get along with it at all. Thought it was way too dark, and polished, and I'm usually not someone who is very picky. Preferred the Rectifier next to it big time. But I only hear good things about them

 

[moltenmetalburn]

IMO it does not suck..

it can be darker with the bright switch off
with the bright switch "on" you have to watch the mids as the are more upper mids ; think Jcm800
It is tight but not stiff Like a Fryette or MKV

It does not have the low end clout of and Uberschall or Vh4 but also is much less compressed.

it does 2 sounds basically amazing cleans country/jazz/blues and modern rock . i would not pick it for a cover band playing 70s 80s stuff
if your set is Creed ,Alterbridge Three day Grace . KSE, Breaking Benjamin your good to go .

For hair metal and classic rock I think its too modern ,and for super tight metal maybe to thick sounding

thanks that is pretty articulate.

low end is fine with me, play with bassist, I respect the mix more than my ego.

I am thinking modern metal. I am coming from a Diezel Dmoll as my Number 1, and Einstein as Number 2.

looking at Archon, EVH 50 watt, Jet city JCA50H, Fryette D60, right now.

I have nothing against the archon, but for metal or rock, the d60 will crush everything on that list. Played mine next to an evh 50, and and the evh sounded like a hollow can of bees. You may even defect from diezel...

I had a D120 it was killer BUT they are really dry not sure I want that. Def high on list.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

I too am a DMoll dark tone lover and Archon curious....so I will watch your progress with great interest

 

[NeubyWanKaneuby]

I had an Archon 100 and only reason I sold it was because I bought an Axe FX. Otherwise, I'd probably still have it.

 

[lowmantotempole]

I have an Archon 100 I’m looking to trade... Maybe sell... Just not using it right now. Sounds better with EL34/6ca7 power tubes.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

I too am a DMoll dark tone lover and Archon curious....so I will watch your progress with great interest

Hahahahaha

 

[JerEvil]

I have an Archon 100 I’m looking to trade... Maybe sell... Just not using it right now. Sounds better with EL34/6ca7 power tubes.

Want a Gibson V??? LOL!

I am Archon-Curious...

I have heard way more good clips than bad ones and all the Kemper profiles I had were killer. I love the model on my Helix as well.

 

[8len8]

I heard they only sound good when turned up.

 

[Apex1Rg7X]

I have a 50 watt head that I'm selling, basically just to try other stuff out but this amp is killer imo. Fantastic clean channel and the gain is crushing. I play mine at bedroom to moderate levels and it sounds huge, Haven't really had a chance to open it up through a 4x12 but I'm sure that would be amazing.

 

[vchizzle]

They’re great sounding amps. I EQ them far differently between Home volume and gig volume. I describe the mids as smooth, not high and biting. I had an Uber and an Archon here for a few days. The Uber is awesome but it’s pretty specific in what it does. The Archon has more versatility IMO. I couldn’t justify keeping the Uber. Some guys like a GEQ in the loop. I haven’t tried that yet.
It does have a polished, smooth sound overall but has a great feel to it as well. I can’t give a comparison to a Diezel. I’ve only played the Einstein, Herb and VH. But that was quite awhile back.

I heard they only sound good when turned up.

Wrong. They have a better master than 95% of the amps out there. Do they sound better turned up? Sure, but they retain a solid portion of the sound and more importantly the feel at low volumes.

 

[bubbastain]

I think the Archon is a pretty awesome sounding amp. The clean channel is great and takes drive pedals really good. I dig the gain channel a lot. It likes a boost if you like to boost. I recently returned mine. It was a 2014,but I got it new. Only problem was the loop. It's noisy with some pedals. And unfortunately it was noisy with my main delay pedal. They had a fix for it that they started doing in November of 2014, but mine didn't have it done. Music store was cool and hooked me up with the PRS rep to send it back to have the loop fixed/updated. I was told about two weeks. A month goes by and I don't hear a word from the rep and my calls and texts are not answered. So I just returned it. It very well could be on it's way back but I was done. I really liked the amp though. Here is a little iPhone clip I recorded. The first distorted tones are from a pedal. After that it amp distortion. I also turn on a clean boost a few times. I turn the effects loop on and off several times durning the video and you should be able to hear the noise. It was just too much on the gain channels.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

Thanks for all the info guys.

So far i am liking it but loop noise is a deal breaker. Anyone have a review for the newer “fixed” loop?

 

[vchizzle]

Thanks for all the info guys.

So far i am liking it but loop noise is a deal breaker. Anyone have a review for the newer “fixed” loop?

My loop works fine with an Eventide H9, TC mini verb, Catalinbread belle epoch, Strymon timeline and Rocktron intellifex. I had an issue with a T-Rex whirrly verb pedal. That one was unusable for me, which didn’t matter much since I didn’t like the pedal much to begin with. What do you use in your loop?