I use the 808 and have had good luck with it. the synergy reels have a small diamter screw that holds the handle in the reel and I always break them. the 808's hold up fairly good. I have replaced the pick up pins in mine and they seem to do a whole lot better. The pick up pin hold in the spool is drilled deeper than the pin is long and the pins seem to slide in them. replacing them with a longer pin solved that problem. When the pickup pin slides in, the disables the reels ability to pick up the line and retrieve it.

Now with that said, if you learn on an AMS reels you will be bettor off in the long run b/c they are very very durable and almost never a problem with them. It is hard to convert IMO over to the buck reel once you shot the standard reels.