Review: PRS Archon 50 Classic Head

The dual-channelled, PRS Archon 50 Classic Head is a tanky, riff-summoning monolith. Six—count ’em—SIX 12AX7 tubes in the preamp deliver glassy cleans and complex gain, while a pair of 6CA7s push a bold, mid-forward roar that blurs the line between British and American voicings. It’s old-school power with modern clarity and a face like a modern reissue of a 70’s muscle car.

Paul Reed Smith has long been synonymous with meticulous craftsmanship and tonal versatility. While their guitars have been gracing stages across the world since the mid-80s, the brand’s foray into amplification kicked off more than 20 years later. Vintage-inspired boutique models like the Dallas and Sweet 16 leaned into classic American and British style tones with a focus on touch-sensitivity and clarity. The original PRS Archon, which first saw the light of day in 2013, marked a decisive pivot into heavier, more aggressive territory. The Archon was celebrated for its ability to dish out searing high-gain tones while still retaining crystal clarity in its clean channel (honestly, kinda rare for the time). In case you’re wondering (and haven’t Googled it yet), Archon is Greek for ‘ruler’ or ‘lord’; a classic PRS flex on its high-gain credentials and the finesse and precision that defines the brand.

Archon 50 Classic Head

In 2025, PRS follows up with the Archon 50 Classic Head: a reimagining of the staple stage-amps that belted out blazing ballads and blistering rock anthems in the ‘70s and ‘80s. The Archon 50 Classic offers a refined gain structure, particularly in the mids, and a clean channel that effortlessly transitions from sparkling, icy cleans to a crackling warmth that lives right in the sweet spot between clean boost and that first crunchy flicker of light breakup. This amp is for players seeking both vintage-inspired tones with modern reliability, and snarling, mid-heavy, high-gain heat. A bit like an antique leadlight window into the past, mounted in a contemporarily engineered frame.

Packaging says a lot about a brand. I will die on this hill. The Archon 50 Classic I tested for Mixdown came inside a generic brown box with the Paul Reed Smith signature emblazoned on the side. Or so I thought. Opening the brown box revealed… another box. This one black and glossy and boasting a high quality photograph of the product alongside a very bold claim that it was capable of producing a “TIMELESS TONE” (spoiler alert: it was). The packaging material inside was meticulously cut and arranged; an aesthetic directly transferable to the actual products crafted by PRS. My joy peaked as I lifted back the styrofoam and encountered a cardboard top-panel factory overlay, printed with quick-start set up info, explanations about the preamp & power amp controls, and—the pièce de résistance—a range of suggested tones (all the way from ‘60s Brit Blues to ‘80s Glam Rock) complete with control-panel schematics and dial settings for each tone. A monkey with no ears could dial a good tone into this amp. The head itself clocks in at 56cm x 25cm x 23cm, is wrapped in textured black tolex and has a brushed metal faceplate and Paul Reed Smith signature plate screwed to the front. It is understated but classy; dark and mean, almost wraithlike in its confident simplicity. If Gandalf turned one of the Nazgul into a guitar amp, it would look something like the Archon 50 Classic. 

12AX7 preamp

As I touched on earlier, there’s a stack of six 12AX7 preamp tubes and two 6CA7 power tubes under the hood. The 12AX7s are a high-gain staple, famous for delivering articulate saturation and responsive dynamics. Running six of them means you’ve got a ton of headroom for each of the dual channels. Tonally, the 6CA7 tubes live somewhere between an EL34 and a 6L6, so you’re getting the chewy midrange growl you might find in a British amp, but with the low-end clarity and tighter response of an American amp. It’s a hybrid personality that gives warmth and articulation without sounding too scooped or flubby.

From left to right on the front panel, you’ve got your ¼” input jack, channel switch (up for lead, down for clean), lead channel controls (volume, treble, middle, bass, master), clean channel controls (ditto), power amp controls (presence and depth), a red power indicator LED that could illuminate a small stadium, and a very vintage power toggle switch (up for on, down for off). Both channels also come with a bonus “bright” switch that adds high frequencies, giving you extra twinkle and shimmer on your cleans, or an airy sizzle on your leads. Round the back and from left to right, you’ve got your 110W power input, ¼” send and return effects loop inputs, footswitch input (yes, there was one in the box), bias jacks (for professional use only), and three sets of speaker jacks (one set for 1×4Ω or 2×8, one set for 1×8 or 2×16Ω, and a single output for 1×16Ω).

Here’s a list of standout moments during my experience playing through the Archon 50 Classic Head. My pick attack cuts through like a hunting knife. Flicking the bright switch on the lead channel almost feels like hitting an overdrive stomp box with the tone and treble dials all the way up. The clean channel is so pristine and pure it feels like I’m playing atop a frozen lake. I can’t remember the last time an amp so well articulated the position of my right hand while palm muting and had such a dynamic gain response to different right-hand picking techniques.

So what’s the verdict? The PRS Archon 50 Classic Head proves that raw grunt and contemporary refinement don’t have to be mutually exclusive. You can play delicate, shimmery chords on one channel, and molten mid-forward chugs on another without an array of pedals. This is boutique gear with a spritz of intellectuality, built for players who want clarity and power without compromise. It’s a tool built with the same obsessive precision that Paul Reed Smith puts into his guitars, and is worthy of having his signature bolted onto its face.

For local PRS enquiries, keep reading at ELFA.