Prs sonzera 20

[Patsyn]

I bought one of these recently second hand. The older version much maligned for its noise floor and poor gain channel. I am not in a band so don't play at massive volumes but I think this is an amazing amp at the volumes I play it at. The clean channel and reverb is brilliant. Playing the gain channel with the gain lower gives a lovely bit of break up. I dont think the noise floor is any worse than other tube amps I have played recently. In some ways it's better as it's more white noise than a hum. Is anyone familiar with these amps and would a proper tube fender princeton or deluxe reverb be a significant notch above this in terms of sound quality and responsiveness when you pick hard ? The other amps I have are a fender suoer champ xd and a fender champ 600 so granted I am not comparing it to top quality amps.

[GuitarBilly]

I only played the 50w head version. I agree it is a decent amp, especially for the price. It's a modern amp though and it sounds and feels like one. So compared to a Princeton or Deluxe, yes they react differently and they're more dynamic and responsive to pick attack. It has nothing to do with "high quality", it's more of an old vs modern thing. The PRS has a lot more filtering in the power amp. Entirely different designs and purposes.

Another good comparison would be a Friedman amp vs an old Marshall. The Marshall will be more responsive to pick attack while the Friedman is more filtered and steady.

But in both cases, one is not better than the other. It all depends on what you're trying to do.

The build quality in the PRS is fine. Not as good as a vintage Fender but definitely on par with a Fender reissue.