Marshall Studio Classic SC20C

Genau das was ich erwartet hatte: wie der "Große 100 Watt Bruder" von '81! Rock Sound pur, aber eben auch für's Wohnzimmer. Ein Kanal, sechs Regler,spartanisch kompromißlos; schneidender, druckvoller Klang bis in die Spitzen! Die "neue" Technik zur Leistungsreduzierung (20/5 Watt) macht diesen Amp bei 14,6 kg unglaublich flexibel. Und der V 10" Speaker ist entgegen der Meinung einiger Kritiker vollkommen ausreichend!! Für mich gibt es hier nichts Negatives! Keep on Rockin' ....

If you are familiar with the JCM800 sound, this combo will not disappoint. For those who have not yet experienced it, it is definitely a worthy investment. First of all, before I ordered it I was reading blogs and worrying myself about the 10" speaker. I want to make this very clear, the speaker is great! Marshall knew what they were doing, and whatever they did with engineering the box and speaker does not disappoint.
I moved and could not take my 100w Marshall with me and I do not feel like this combo is lacking for my current application.
This things is also VERY loud. It makes sound at low volumes, but it may be a bad investment if you are unable to play at above bedroom levels. Once it's plenty loud, the feel of the guitar in relation to the amp is amazing. The breakup is just right and dialing in a tone is very easy. It's a great purchase for those who may want a portable volume monster as well as those who have never experienced a cranked tube amp.
Great job Marshall!!
Oh, and the fx loop volume drop is only noticable at low volumes, and since you are playing it low enough to notice, this shouldn't be a compliant.

Let me start by stating that I have never used the original JCM 800, so this is not going to be a comparison between the two amps.

Starting from its build quality, it looks and feels pretty good. The potentiometers do not feel cheap on use and they are pretty linear. The overall finish is very nice.

How it sounds then? Well, this amp is loud, like really really loud. Do not think of it as a bedroom amp. Do not even think of it as a neighborhood friendly amp. People will know you are playing.
In terms of perceptive loudness, the difference between the 5W and 20W modes is rather small. At 5W the amp will break up past 3 on the preamp setting and putting the master volume past 5 will start hurting your ears if you are sitting next to it. At 20W the amp will break up past 4 on the preamp. In both modes you can use the master volume to control the loudness pretty effectively, although a bedroom level volume can not be achieved with the master volume past 1 or 2.
For your average use, the difference between the 5W and 20W is more of headroom than of loudness.
Here, the high and low sensitivity inputs come to play. The low one is considerably less loud and as a result, the amp will break up in higher settings when using it.

In terms of sound character, this is not a modern high gain amp. You can get considerable saturation, but you need the master volume to be cranked up. The preamp alone is not enough for that.
The cleans sound good, the crunch sounds better and the saturated sounds even better.
That been said, any pedals you enjoy, will work like a charm on this amp. I have tried some overdrives and distortions and the all did sound good. In this sense you can play a lot of different music on this amp. The on board eq and presence controls are very useful indeed. I also find the 10" speaker good enough.

Overall this is a great amp, it sounds great, it has the power and it is well built. The thing is though, it is like owning a fast car. You can enjoy it every day, but you can't really enjoy all of it, all the time.

PS: There is no power cable included! Why?