Differences between a 200S and a Sonara?

[Denis]

Hello,
I have a '69 200S. A friend has borrowed it and played it in some of his gigs. He's found a Sonara and asked me what the differences are.
Other than suspecting the 200S is more powerful I'm at a loss to explain the differences.
Would anyone care to offer advice and info?
Thanks so much!

[EdBass]

The Sonaro is a 40 watt amp that uses a pair of EL34 output tubes and the 200S is a 60 watt amp that uses a pair of KT88/6550 output tubes. Other than that they are pretty similar.
Use the search function on this site to dig around, you will find more info about both amps.

[Denis]

Cool, thanks for that info. I found some info in the catalog thread, but Sunn stuff seems really complex and ever changing.

[sledz]

The Sonaro is a 40 watt amp that uses a pair of EL34 output tubes and the 200S is a 60 watt amp that uses a pair of KT88/6550 output tubes. Other than that they are pretty similar.
Use the search function on this site to dig around, you will find more info about both amps.

I had Sonaro, which was 80W with 2xKT88 and solid state rectifier... what is probably reflected in Sunn catalog on this forum.

[EdBass]

The Sonaro is a 40 watt amp that uses a pair of EL34 output tubes and the 200S is a 60 watt amp that uses a pair of KT88/6550 output tubes. Other than that they are pretty similar.
Use the search function on this site to dig around, you will find more info about both amps.

I had Sonaro, which was 80W with 2xKT88 and solid state rectifier... what is probably reflected in Sunn catalog on this forum.

Yeah, the Sonaro hung around for a minute after the switch to all SS rectifiers and Sunn had dropped the 40 watt amps. I saw the '69 in the OP and assumed that was the year of the Sonaro in question, but re-reading the OP I see that may not be the case. If it IS a SS rectified Sonaro the amp is actually a bit more powerful than the '69 200S.

However sledz, if you had a later SS rectified Sonaro, it would have come OEM with 6550's, not KT88's...

Another interesting phenomenon among Sonaros is the mention by people who have a stand alone 6550 Sonaro head rather than the combo amp that all of the literature shows as the only"Sonaro" ever available.
Most of us are aware that anomalies abound among Sunn amps over the years, but the stand alone, non-combo Sonaro is a head scratcher for me. Why would they build such an item?
The 200S and Sorado were already identical amplifiers, being different only in nomenclature, the speaker cabinet, and the price point; the concept of yet another identical stand alone amplifier unit with a 3rd nomenclature seems a bit odd, even for Sunn.
Does anyone know what proprietary speaker cab came paired with the Sonaro stand alone amplifier unit?

[Walt-Dogg]

I'm willing to bet a Sonara as just a head is the equivalent of an Ampeg VT-22 in a headbox. As they shared the same chassis the swap was as easy for the end user as unscrewing four bolts and moving the chassis to another cabinet and then bolting it back down is all the needs to be done (referring to the Ampegs). There's also the possibility of it just being a factory rarity like transition Model Ts and the like.

[Denis]

Thanks for all the information! Seems like the Sonara went through a few changes in it's lifetime.

[scotzoid]

Just to muddy the waters some more, when I bought my Sorado in early '71, it was my choice over the contemporary Sonaro stack next to it; as it was explained to me at the time, they were the same exact head each with a different speaker config: Sorado had the 2 15's in the 24w x 42h x 15d cab, while Sonaro came with two separate cabs w/1-15 each - all I remember about the cab size was they were 24w x 9d, unsure of the height now.

It became obvious next year how confusing this badging system was, when they changed everything to a mix & match system; the Sorado & all its siblings became the 190B, with several recommended speaker systems to match.

[Isaac]

I'd love to get a couple of those old 1X15" cabinets, either the Sorado or the 115S. I had a 115S. So sorry I ever let it go.

[Happy Face]

Wow, that's interesting. I never had a clue about those appearing ever so briefly.

I bought a couple of Sonaro heads which were simply sawed off of the combos. So the 40 watt versions. Long gone, though one could be found.