I owned a local recording studio for 25 years and it feels like I've heard every amp and pedal out there, but The Synergy system with the SYN 20IR is so impressive! I love amps. I love modelers, and I still use all of them but Synergy is the best of both worlds. Covienence and real tube amp sound.
It's very easy to use your own IR's. The IR's that come with it are very good but I use York Audio IR's with it.
Lots of tone shaping capabilities with the 20IR! I bought the Soldano and the Friedman DLX and they both are simply amazing. Bogner is up next!

Like many others, I come from the floor modeler realm but wanted something with a better response/feel and I didn't need a million options to constantly scroll through and edit. Enter the Synergy amp.

With its IR and XLR output, it's perfect for my church gig. It's built like a tank. It's not heavy but it's got some heft to it for a lunchbox-sized amp. I love having the tactile feel of knobs with immediate aural feedback instead of diving through menus...it's great to have a real amp again!

To start with I purchased the Marshall JMP and the Synergy IICP modules and I'm ecstatic with both! I run a Friedman 2x12 vertical slant cab for monitoring and I'm getting the best tones I've ever had.

Oh yeah this sucker is LOUD, too. Running the master volume at 1 (or slightly lower) is plenty for me to monitor myself over the drummer.

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After viewing several reviews of the Synergy SYN-20IR, I purchased the amp, with a module, from Sweetwater. The amp is killer. It has a great clean channel and the Fortin Killer Kali module sounds fantastic. I have Fender, EVH, Friedman and Vai/Carvin amps, and this stays right with them, plus it has the 'Reactance' control and built-in IRs that sound great. A winner all the way.
As usual Alden @ Sweetwater was very helpful and ensure my order was quickly on its way. Extremely satisfied.

Jumped into the Synergy world last year when this came out, more out of curiousity. I have several Bogner, Friedman, Soldano, MB tube heads...but also love digital gear for practicing and recording. Always open minded in trying things.

This amp and modular pre-amp system is amazingly well done. By now I'm up to 7-8 preamps and it's fun comparing the Synergy to the real amps. I'm amazed at how character, feel, tone are so similar to the "real" amps.

As far as the Synergy 20IR goes, the reactance settings are really useful at approximating power tube types, the clean channel is great, and with whatever module you are using delivers a legit 3 channel amp experience. It's also LOUD for 20 watts and will hang no problem with a band scenario.

So happy with this in fact just purchased the 50 watt head to be able to use 2 preamp modules at once. Honestly volume difference between the 2 is not material at all.

Wish I found this earlier, it scratches the itch of playing multiple high end amps at a fraction of the cost!!!

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Not long ago I had a guy withdraw an offer for a Synergy module I tried to buy from him because he got the 20IR and the module came roaring to life. The power stage makes a huge difference and Synergy did a very smart thing building a 20 watt EL84 amp. In fact, I like the sound so much that I found a vintage Mesa 20/20 EL84 based power amp to go with my SYN 2s. The Synergy 6L6 based 50/50 is great but it's so neutral (by design) and frankly has too much power for most playing situations I'm in (everything goes front of house now).

The 20IR is insanely flexible, including a nice Fender-esque clean channel that takes pedals perfectly. I'm playing out with it almost exclusively now. I keep a little Quilter solid state with me as back up in case a tube goes.

If you want to use Synergy outside of the studio, and don't like showing up to jam sessions and small gigs with a rack mounted system, this is a no brainer.

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Great sounding little amp.
It does have plenty of output for a 20watt head.
Max Rapp my Sales Engineer was very helpful in recommending this Amp!
Thank you!

I play in a metal band. Both live and in practice this thing rips. I run it into a mesa recto 2x12 cab. It has no problems at all competing with drums, bass and a second guitar. This was going to be my home recording amp but ended up leaving it at the practice space as my main amp! The structure switch is the key to the el84's sounding like 6l6's or el34's. Love this amp. Using the Bogner uberschall as the preamp.

LIGHT, FOOTSWITCH W SUPER CLEAN IN PEDAL SWITCH 1, DIRECT OUT FOR RECORDING USING A FOCUSRITE

Never really considered a 20W AMP, but it seems like the perfect fit for what I do.

Lots of different Amp modules to choose from and more coming all the time

Loud enough to mic through a 4X12 Cab and perfect for practice and smaller gigs

Very flexible in terms of effects loops and recording options

Marshall like clean channel is built into the amp

I purchased this a while back 20 W will absolutely work on stage. I already had modules so that was easy. The clean is amazing. The size and compact is awesome. Was suggest this to anyone I do own the 50 W synergy as well but this little amp is a game changer

I started using Synergy gear shortly after their debut several years ago. I have a SYN-2 rack mount chassis and just shy of a dozen modules, and while the SYN-2 is still very much a great piece of gear, I paradoxically found that having two slots was more of a hinderance than a help in my particular case. For me it meant having to set up presets on my pedalboard that accommodated whatever combination of 2 preamp modules I'd likely have in the chassis. It made it an over-complicated hassle, even if it sounded great.

Enter the SYN-20IR. One slot is perfect! The built in clean channel is really quite good, the power amp profiles are a great feature, and of course the IR capabilities make it a powerful tool for both stage and studio. Even if I'm programming in specific presets in my pedalboard for each preamp module, the complexity of different combinations is gone. And with every preamp module I've got a powerful three channel amp. This little guy is a re-amper's dream rig.

I've attached a video from a performance on StageIt using the SYN-20IR with the Soldano SLO-II module and delay + reverb provided by Fractal FM9.

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