Synergy SYN-5050 Rackmount 2 x 50-watt Tube Amp Reviews

I have the syn-2 dual module pre-amp dock and bought the SYN-5050 to use as the dedicated power amp for my Synergy system. The device is extremely well built and sits very securely in my rack mount for it.

There are lots of useful features that make setting it up for many different cases a breeze. It can be run as two 50w stereo power amps or you can flip a switch and bridge the channels for a mono 100w power amp. I prefer to run it bridged 100w mono for the extra headroom. It's particularly useful for the higher gain metal oriented preamp modules.

There is independent volume controls, which are very effective and do allow you to play at reasonable inside levels. There is also a master depth and presence controls giving you plenty of tonal control over the power amp. It contains four 6L6GC power tubes. They provide lots of clean headroom, but respond as 6L6 tubes do when pushed. Overall they seem to be a very good match for every one of the modules that I have.

The single "con" that I will mention is that because this is a 19in rack mount poweramp, it requires a small cooling fan to run at all times when the power is on. It is very quiet, but noticeable if sitting close to the power amp and the room is otherwise quiet. When you are playing the fan cannot be heard at all, and if you sit/stand 5-10ft away from the amp you won't hear it either. It feel its worth noting since different people have different setups, and the fan sound may possibly be a factor.

There are not too many different options for stand-alone power amps currently, and I think that if you have the Synergy pre-amp this is logical power amp to get. I will also say that I have spoken with the team over at Synergy many times, and they are a great bunch. Very helpful and great about technical support for their products. I am very pleased with this purchase

This is an utterly amazing ONE rack space 100 watt full on powerful amp. At first I had some sort of noise floor but it was not the amp and having changed my rig all around everything is utterly quiet now except for the cooling fan which is not a big deal for me anyway.
I have a rather optioned Synergy rig at this point using this power amp with two SYN2's chained for 4 active modules. It is an understatement to express how great it is having an all tube system that is reliable and consistent. Sure there are modelers everywhere with the latest greatest digital "copy" technology. Synergy is an amazing way to get into using real amps with real tubes and being able to change out to different ones for a fraction of the cost. Best thing to have happened to the real guitar amp scene; as long as we have tubes, this is the peak.
One has to remember Synergy is high voltage real tube amp analog w no digital anything. Every module when running has (5) 12AX7's and (4) large bottle 6L6 tubes just like any major 100watt amp would have. The module contains (2) 12AX7's which are used for the distortion and gain cascade, the SYN units have (1) 12AX7 for signal preamping, the power amp uses (2) 12XA7's to preamp the level into the 4 power tubes just like any other amp would cascade gain and use preamp circuits. It is the REAL deal, no short cuts nothing lacking from any other major boutique wattage head.

I've been using solid state for over a decade now due to my older tube amps constantly in the shop. This is the first rack style power amp I've purchased. Just running my pedals and or modelers through it at the moment and it sounds glorious. Not quite as loud as my solid states but still more than enough for a drummer to hear plus it sounds like glorious tube heaven compared to my old rig.
Will update when rack system is complete aka when I have the power conditioner,preamp and modules.

First off, no bad issue w this amp, my love for Synergy stuff is limitless at this point; I have experienced the same "noise floor hiss" in many amps and while only audible when not playing still there and annoying. Real tubes create more noise floor hiss to be sure, nature of the beast and all that. My present Synergy rig is running 8 total 12AX7s and 4 6L6 tubes so one might presume a bit of hiss, but...
So to start off I run Furman power conditioners, all one source power feeds, one path to ground so NO ground loop "hum" issues. This is that annoying "background noise floor hiss" when nothing is playing or often even on. All soldered high end EBS cables, quality Lava feeds to board and to Synergy preamps. Super high end thick speaker cables. Experimenting I just realize that the power amp would get a hiss as soon as you plugged anything into it even with NO signal!! I have seen this before with other power amps and powered speakers. And while it is not a quality or design issue far as I can tell, just seems to be something gear will do.
I just saw a keyboard guy on YT frustrated over it as well and could not solve it.
So.... SOLUTION.....I got a couple Lehle P Splitters for other uses and noticed they were very high end isolator blocks on the main out. I plugged these into the power amp and my pedalboard feeds into them going to the power amp and presto boys and girls, zero noise, no noise floor hiss at all! So Lehle P-Splitters isolated the main feeds to the power amp and shunt the noise with absolute transparent pass through of signal. Works!!!! I should clarify a NR Noise Gate will not help this problem as it is all the way in regard to the power amp final stage and no way to get a NR clamp onto it and that does not solve a problem merely covers it.....so annoying slight background noise hiss... LEHLE boys and girls!!

Just got this core piece for my Synergy rig and it really elevates the preamp modules to another level from my other power amps. Having all tube power with the tube preamps is just a marvelous thing, best rig I have ever had. The ability to buy it piece by piece and expand it as far as you like is just inventive beyond compare.
I have two SYN1's with two modules, the Fryette Pitbull and the Bogner Ecstasy with the SYN50/50 power amp. That makes 8 total 12ax7s in the rig with the 4 main 6L6 power tubes. It is remarkably quiet, sometimes you need to NR gate the uber high gain stuff but not an issue really. My other power amp made more hiss floor this one all tubes and more quiet. Suburb design by Fryette, highly inventive 1 rack space special design transformers. Presence and Low end Damping help dial in the proper balance for your cabs. I use two Mesa Engineering twin 12s with Black Shadows, really does well run in stereo split from my Strymon Volante fed from the preamp main out. The 50/50 is a heavy rascal, almost 30lbs, just feels like a quality robust build. Well vented, I leave space in my rack above and below it for better cooling, fan is reasonably quiet.
Before you buy into some uber expensive one trick pony amps costing about $4K ea you should give Synergy a try and pick the preamp module for the type of amp that suits you. The range of fantastic cleaner tube channels to upper mega high gain monsters is all here and it is the real deal. Want a new amp, swap a module and bang all new tones. I am so happy with my Synergy rig. Best thing to happen to guitar in a long time!!
I only request two things, more detailed manuals and specs are needed for all pieces. I know it is a no reading, dumbed down age but I want to know my impedance issues, how the auto bias works, can you switch tube types and if not , why? Info would be nice they never seem to answer questions. How about some T-shirts, Hats guys, promote SYNERGY for god's sake we need you guys to keep at it, more modules and more products please!

Best purchase ever. All of the amps that I have purchased throughout many years, this one is the best of all. It gives me the flexibility that I've always wanted. I promise you can't go wrong with this wonderful amp. The amp gives you stereo 50 watt and bridged mod It gives you 100 watts. What more could any musician ever want. I never write reviews because the product never lives up to the hype. Not in this case this is just white synergy advertised.
However like all other products, the tech departments and their knowledge as well as getting back with you! "is just as poor as all the other tech departments. They don't know their product and they don't have an answer. "They can only read what is written in the manuals". It took me 10 days from the time I received my synergy amplifier before I got a simple answer. Then I still felt as if the answer that was given, had a lot of Doubt. I had to explain to them over and over the operation of the synergy amplifier, trying to teach them about their product. The answer given to me when finally someone got in contact with me for the second time, was completely false. I had to correct the answer for the technician. What a sad amount of knowledge for the products Manufactured and Sold to the consumers. "Again I would like to state my question was a very short and simple question, keep that in mind".
Final conclusion the synergy amplifier is the best.

This is my first rack mount power amp, but compared to a lot of my other amp heads from the past, I'm loving the sounds I'm getting out of this when used with my syn-2 preamp. It's amazing having the ability to run stereo setups now too. I paired it with the Synergy 4x12 (figured I'd go all in. 0 regrets).

There is a fan noise, but even playing at 'bedroom' levels with the unit about 3 feet from me, I don't notice it.

I got this because I wanted to lighten my load for playing live. I play out of two 4x12"s, and was using my GT-1000 into two tube heads via 4 cable method. Now just the synergy power and and my GT-1000, sounds great, loud as hell, very clear and warm sounding. The ONLY thing I"d change is a better, more well written manual.

After years of trying different power amps since my old Mesa 50/50 had to be retired, this is the first one I've tried that matched and exceeded that amp. Very pleased. Wanted to wait a few weeks after owning it to post a review. Have used for a number of full band rehearsals and it sounds great. The Presence and Depth controls are a nice addition. Also, being able to mount in one rack space makes for a more compact setup. I would definitely recommend this amp, especially for a great sounding stereo setup!

I've been running solid state amps for 30+ years now. Tried tube amps back in the day (Marshalls, Randalls, Carvins, Fenders, Peaveys, etc...) but it seemed as though they always needed to be in the shop for one reason or another. Solid State was my choice for decades... Well, now here's this single rack space, all-tube power amp - I had to try it. Love it!!! Had the first rehearsal with the band last week and everybody could hear the difference. At first I thought it was just me being happy about a new amp; but, no... I heard it too, and they all said how great the entire room sounded! The SYN5050 has way more dynamic response than any other SS or older Tube amp that I have ever played through. Clean, clear, ballsy - every nuance of my picking comes through. I gave it 4 and a half stars because I need to use it more. Really happy with my set-up at the first 3-hour practice. This weekend I will gig it for 4+hours - more on that later! Try it, you'll like it!

One unit rack space with 100watts tube power. Enough said. Sounds fantastic. Although would be nice if you could switch to EL34s.

This is a great amp. It has flexible tonal controls for low end and presence which I found useful. I really like that it has 6L6 power tubes and a variable speed fan. The variable speed fan cuts down on constant noise in the studio.

It's hard to believe they were able to cram this amp into one rack space!

I've had several rack power amps. The fan is noisy. It has two speeds governed by, I'm guessing, a thermostat. Not too noisy on standby or not playing. Very noisy when playing at any volume. Too noisy to be in the same room if used for recording with a mic. The amp generates a lot of heat. Enough that I bought a separate fan for the rack because I was worried that it might damage any adjacent rack gear. It's deceptively heavy and deep. I used it with the SYN2 using both the Friedman HBE and the Soldano SLO modules. There is not enough low end with this combo. I always prefer having more headroom in all eq bands than I need. It's adequate but strange when played side by side with their counterpart amplifies. There's just no umph like a regular amp head. Last complaint was the sides of the chassis have screws midway that the head of the screws protrude out far enough that it makes it difficult to install into a standard rack. Should have been countersunk screws. Honestly using a return jack of a 50 watt Marshall JCM 800 (modified with a loop) with the SYN2 produced a better sound. I wanted to love this set up. It didn't last a week for me. Too heavy, Too noisy, and too expensive to not be a better solution the a traditional amp head. However, if you run a stereo rig then the weight is not as much on an issue. Weighs less than two amp heads.