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Up-to-date information will be available in Yek's Guide to the Fractal Audio Amplifier Models, whenever that gets updated.
ARCHEAN: based on PRS Archon
PRS is Paul Reed Smith's company, which is most famous for its wonderful guitars. Years ago PRS expanded its team and started building amplifiers. The hand-wired Archon is the flagship, used by many famous players, including Mark Tremonti.
The Archon is available as a head or combo. The 2020 lineup consists of a 100W and 50W model. According to PRS the 50W version "breaks up at a lower volume, resulting in a more classically driven tone than its predecessor". The Archon's massive gain reservoir is fueled by no less than six 12AX7 preamp tubes, and the 100W's power amp runs on 6L6 tubes. There's an EL34 option too for a more classic and woolier sound. The output power switch turns off two of the four power tubes on the 100W amps and switches between pentode and triode operation on the 50W version.
The matching cabinets have V30s or G12-75T speakers.
PRS: “High-Gain Heavyweight — Greek for “ruler” or “lord,” the PRS Archon is a commanding and versatile 2-channel amp with aggressive overdriven tones and sparkling cleans with plenty of headroom. The Archon’s lead channel was designed with five gain stages before the master volume, delivering full, lush distortion. The clean channel provides ample headroom with rich clear tones that retain clarity even at high volume and are an excellent platform for pedals. The Archon has remarkably responsive tone with incredible note separation, whether you’re playing on the clean channel or chugging on the lead. 6L6 tubes offer plenty of versatility and warmer, more balanced tone across the full range of frequencies. They will also push with less saturation for a bit of a sweeter, smoother tone. Utilizing a ‘no flash or trash’ approach, the Archon’s control layout features volume and tone controls for each channel, a global depth control to add a thunderous low end, and a presence control to effect the high end chime. A half-power switch allows players to choose either 100 or 50 watts of output adding to the Archon’s extreme flexibility."
The amp has two channels: Clean and Lead. Each channel has the usual tone controls, its own bright switch, its own Volume and Master controls, and there are global Depth and Presence controls. Both channels excel in their own field of expertise.
Even though the amp is most known for its high gain sound, its 6L6-driven clean sound is also exceptional and wide-ranging. The clean channel's controls allow it to cover everything from glassy blackface Fenders to tinkling Mesa. The Bright switch is important. The channel stays clean for a long time when turning up its volume. It can get a little gritty and crunchy at higher volume levels when digging in, perhaps similar to a Hiwatt. And as forum member @Burgs showcases in this demo of the model, the clean channel takes pedals very well. Note: the clean channel's model has very low output level at default settings; just turn up the Master or Level in the model.
The Lead channel has so much gain on tap that using an OD with it may be considered overkill. The sound is smooth, fat and dense, articulate, has loads of sustain, and stays focused and tight even at the highest gain levels and dropped-tuned guitars. It's as if the best features of Bogner, Diezel, Mesa and some Marshall amps are combined, while being easy to dial in. It's a modern sound but it can be tweaked to do the 70s and 80s stuff too. Because of all this gain, cleaning up the sound requires not only turning down the gain on the amp but also turning down the guitar's volume, which it handles fine. It's a dark amp with controls at noon, but with the Bright switch, Treble and Presence, it provides enough tools to dial it in to your liking. Don't overlook the Middle control (turn it down for scooped metal), and if the Bass control doesn't give you enough thump, turn up Depth.
Fractal Audio recommends to crank the Master on the real amp:
"You have to crank the MV on the real amp. The preamp is very "dry" so to get the juices flowing the power amp needs to be working hard. This also smooths out that funky midrange."
"I think part of the reason the real Archon needs to be cranked is because the power supply is too stiff. It's got six (!!!) big caps filtering the B+. That's too much filtering IMO unless you're playing at arena volumes. If I were to make a modification to the amp it would be a switch to disconnect four of those caps so the supply is more bouncy at moderate volumes. Maybe also a tube rectifier to add some more sponge."
Owner's Manual
Reviews:
Fractal Audio provides a model of the Clean channel and two models of the Lead channel (Bright switch on / off), named "Archean" (firmware Ares 14.01 and later) of the 100W 6L6 amplifier. The models use the 4x12 Friedman impedance curve.
ARCHEAN: based on PRS Archon
PRS is Paul Reed Smith's company, which is most famous for its wonderful guitars. Years ago PRS expanded its team and started building amplifiers. The hand-wired Archon is the flagship, used by many famous players, including Mark Tremonti.
The Archon is available as a head or combo. The 2020 lineup consists of a 100W and 50W model. According to PRS the 50W version "breaks up at a lower volume, resulting in a more classically driven tone than its predecessor". The Archon's massive gain reservoir is fueled by no less than six 12AX7 preamp tubes, and the 100W's power amp runs on 6L6 tubes. There's an EL34 option too for a more classic and woolier sound. The output power switch turns off two of the four power tubes on the 100W amps and switches between pentode and triode operation on the 50W version.
The matching cabinets have V30s or G12-75T speakers.
PRS: “High-Gain Heavyweight — Greek for “ruler” or “lord,” the PRS Archon is a commanding and versatile 2-channel amp with aggressive overdriven tones and sparkling cleans with plenty of headroom. The Archon’s lead channel was designed with five gain stages before the master volume, delivering full, lush distortion. The clean channel provides ample headroom with rich clear tones that retain clarity even at high volume and are an excellent platform for pedals. The Archon has remarkably responsive tone with incredible note separation, whether you’re playing on the clean channel or chugging on the lead. 6L6 tubes offer plenty of versatility and warmer, more balanced tone across the full range of frequencies. They will also push with less saturation for a bit of a sweeter, smoother tone. Utilizing a ‘no flash or trash’ approach, the Archon’s control layout features volume and tone controls for each channel, a global depth control to add a thunderous low end, and a presence control to effect the high end chime. A half-power switch allows players to choose either 100 or 50 watts of output adding to the Archon’s extreme flexibility."
The amp has two channels: Clean and Lead. Each channel has the usual tone controls, its own bright switch, its own Volume and Master controls, and there are global Depth and Presence controls. Both channels excel in their own field of expertise.
Even though the amp is most known for its high gain sound, its 6L6-driven clean sound is also exceptional and wide-ranging. The clean channel's controls allow it to cover everything from glassy blackface Fenders to tinkling Mesa. The Bright switch is important. The channel stays clean for a long time when turning up its volume. It can get a little gritty and crunchy at higher volume levels when digging in, perhaps similar to a Hiwatt. And as forum member @Burgs showcases in this demo of the model, the clean channel takes pedals very well. Note: the clean channel's model has very low output level at default settings; just turn up the Master or Level in the model.
The Lead channel has so much gain on tap that using an OD with it may be considered overkill. The sound is smooth, fat and dense, articulate, has loads of sustain, and stays focused and tight even at the highest gain levels and dropped-tuned guitars. It's as if the best features of Bogner, Diezel, Mesa and some Marshall amps are combined, while being easy to dial in. It's a modern sound but it can be tweaked to do the 70s and 80s stuff too. Because of all this gain, cleaning up the sound requires not only turning down the gain on the amp but also turning down the guitar's volume, which it handles fine. It's a dark amp with controls at noon, but with the Bright switch, Treble and Presence, it provides enough tools to dial it in to your liking. Don't overlook the Middle control (turn it down for scooped metal), and if the Bass control doesn't give you enough thump, turn up Depth.
Fractal Audio recommends to crank the Master on the real amp:
"You have to crank the MV on the real amp. The preamp is very "dry" so to get the juices flowing the power amp needs to be working hard. This also smooths out that funky midrange."
"I think part of the reason the real Archon needs to be cranked is because the power supply is too stiff. It's got six (!!!) big caps filtering the B+. That's too much filtering IMO unless you're playing at arena volumes. If I were to make a modification to the amp it would be a switch to disconnect four of those caps so the supply is more bouncy at moderate volumes. Maybe also a tube rectifier to add some more sponge."
Owner's Manual
Reviews:
Fractal Audio provides a model of the Clean channel and two models of the Lead channel (Bright switch on / off), named "Archean" (firmware Ares 14.01 and later) of the 100W 6L6 amplifier. The models use the 4x12 Friedman impedance curve.
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