Athearn Trains is excited to announce that all sound-equipped HO-scale Genesis locomotives, as well as Athearn N Scale and Roundhouse sound locomotives announced after April 27th, 2009 will proudly feature SoundTraxx Tsunami Digital Sound Decoders. Custom designed for Athearn, these state-of-the-art Digital Sound Decoders will include the following features:
Please visit www.Athearn.com keyword: SoundTraxx, to obtain a list of specific locomotives that will be equipped with SoundTraxx Digital Sound decoders.
The Folks at Athearn
Guess Athearn must have grown tired of the return rate and complaints with the MRC Decoders.
My opinion, This is LONG LONG LONG over due....
Overdue, but ooooooooooooh ssssooooooooo welcome! If they improve their FEF, I might be seriously interested. Okay, I would be seriously interested.
Athearn, good on ya. We gave you enough hints!!!
-Crandell
at last !!!!!!!!!!!!
at last !!!!!!!!!!!
To each his own. I got burnt on 10 Genesis diesels and their "sound" decoders (he haw). I don't need any more diesels anyway, have over 150, can't run them all at one time anyway. I will continue to look to Atlas or Kato for any new engines. I will not contribute to the bottom line of Athearn any longer.
Bob
David,I have it on fairly good information that the Athearn Tsunami's will be full featured boards and not the ones used on Bachmann. Apparently, Bachmann worked out their own deal with Soundtraxx, and does not effect the Athearn deal at all. We'll have to wait until they actually come out to see if my source is right or not, but I believe it.
Bob,IIRC, you model ATSF in 1989, right? Since Athearn only has MRC sound in their Genesis line, that means those 10 locos you have can only be F45's, FP45's, or SD45-2's, provided you only bought ATSF units. You've been online here since at least 2002, and the shoddy performance of MRC sound boards were well known by the time the first run of ATSF SD45-2's came out in 2005. But those were all pre-1972 ATSF SD45's. The later scheme came out in 2006 on the SD45-2's, and the F45's and FP45's were announced in 2007.
What I'm getting at here is why in the world did you buy 10 MRC-equipped locos in the first place?
And secondly, why would you shun Athearn for something they had nothing to do with? As I've said over and over, it was Horizon that made the call, and MRC that made the lousy board. Blaming Athearn for your bad MRC boards is a little odd, isn't it?
Paul A. Cutler III*******************Weather Or No Go New Haven*******************
David,I dunno. They also didn't list the different whistles available on the the steam versions, either. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Way to go Athearn. I had only purchased one and that was enough to experience just how inferior the MRC sound decoders were. Fortunately I was able to return it under a recall notice, without question. I can't see paying the same price for a Gensis unit as an Atlas Gold or similar, where the Genesis provided a substandard decoder. At some point the economics and sales numbers had to be applying pressure. The change is extremely welcome and I am already looking to the upcoming NS SD45-2s with Soundtraxx decoders.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
davidmbedard Why then, Paul, is the Reverb and Mixer absent from the feature list? It is present on the full decoder feature sheet. From the Soundtraxx website... Tsunami goes several steps beyond ordinary sound generators. Tsunami is so powerful that it comes with four special effects processors - the Equalizer, Sound Mixer, Dynamic Digital Exhaust and Reverb. It's like having a complete sound studio at your fingertips! To me, it would be a selling point worth mentioning. Wouldn't it? David B
Why then, Paul, is the Reverb and Mixer absent from the feature list? It is present on the full decoder feature sheet.
From the Soundtraxx website...
Tsunami goes several steps beyond ordinary sound generators. Tsunami is so powerful that it comes with four special effects processors - the Equalizer, Sound Mixer, Dynamic Digital Exhaust and Reverb. It's like having a complete sound studio at your fingertips!
To me, it would be a selling point worth mentioning. Wouldn't it?
David B
I emailed Athearn yesterday and they assured me the Tsunami decoders are full featured. No worries.
Carl in Florida - - - - - - - - - - We need an HO Amtrak SDP40F and GE U36B oh wait- We GOT THEM!
Paul3 Bob,IIRC, you model ATSF in 1989, right? Since Athearn only has MRC sound in their Genesis line, that means those 10 locos you have can only be F45's, FP45's, or SD45-2's, provided you only bought ATSF units. You've been online here since at least 2002, and the shoddy performance of MRC sound boards were well known by the time the first run of ATSF SD45-2's came out in 2005. But those were all pre-1972 ATSF SD45's. The later scheme came out in 2006 on the SD45-2's, and the F45's and FP45's were announced in 2007. What I'm getting at here is why in the world did you buy 10 MRC-equipped locos in the first place? And secondly, why would you shun Athearn for something they had nothing to do with? As I've said over and over, it was Horizon that made the call, and MRC that made the lousy board. Blaming Athearn for your bad MRC boards is a little odd, isn't it? Paul A. Cutler III*******************Weather Or No Go New Haven*******************
Well since you asked, the units in question were FP's and SD45-2's, and all are in service, but without sound. And they were two advance orders. My gripe is the sound decoders, but why support a company that knowingly is selling junk that is causing problems. The 10 units had their sound removed surgically after they failed, more than half of which did so from the gitgo. I have to believe that Athearn/Horizon did some testing of those MRC decoders and knew the problems, but continued to sell them anyway. I also am sure they received a lot of feed back from the modeling community and if they read any of the forums, knew the problems. Now they have taken action to correct the problems, but I have removed the decoders already and replaced them with non sound. And I see no indication of replacements for existing Genesis units. I will admit to not being an Athearn fan, and haven't since the days of the rubber band drives that I replaced with Pittman. But in those days there was little choice. Today is different. So, I have little confidence in Athearn/Horizon and I don't NEED any of their diesels to run the railroad, other than the onces I have already invested in.
Oh, and Yes, I complained to Horizon, more than once, they didn't care, and I say that because there was no response from them. I do have two F45 Santa Fe's on the way from First Hobby that I preordered and just received shipping notice, but they were ordered without sound. Finally, I really don't need any more units on my layout, and my want side doesn't favor Genesis.
Hope this clarifies my position to you and anyone else who might wonder.
Bob,My first experience with MRC sound decoders was in the Athearn Challenger in 2003. I don't think I had heard them existing before then, tho' they may well have. I had heard of MRC cheapo motion decoders before then, but MRC sound decoders were unknown to me before the Challengers.
If you dig around their website, Athearn says they announced the Challengers in July, 2003 with MRC sound. Horizon bought Athearn in 2004.
I postulate that Athearn used the untried MRC decoders because of MRC's good reputation (from the powerpack days) and their low-cost (and they probably fell for MRC's press clippings, as MRC has one of the best/worst PR dept.'s in the hobby). The MRC decoders failed miserably, but before Athearn could release another sound-equipped model, they were bought by Horizon. Horizon, not knowing model railroading from a hole in the wall, signed a 5-year contract with MRC for sound decoders. By the time the MRC problems became obvious to even an R/C distributer, they couldn't break the contract. As soon as they could, they dumped MRC and went with Tsunami.
All of the above is pure speculation, so I could be wrong. It's possible that Athearn signed a 6-year deal (which is an unusual number) with MRC and Horizon had no choice...but that doesn't fit with information I've received over the years, so I think my theory holds at least some water.
I don't blame Athearn for choosing MRC for the Challengers. Nobody knew that they were that bad at that time. I do blame Horizon for signing what appears to be signing a 5-year deal with them after the experience with the Challengers, but even then they can plead ignorance. My biggest share of the "blame pie" lands on MRC's face for producing such junk for so long and calling it the best ever.
IMHO, if you're gonna get mad at somebody and boycott their products, boycott MRC. Athearn appears to be, for all intents and purposes, an innocent bystander.Paul A. Cutler III*******************Weather Or No Go New Haven*******************
Paul, I am boycotting MRC, but Athearn's were the units they were installed in, so that meant boycott Athearn. One SD45-2 was so messed up I made it into the worlds costliest dummy, and it is in service with powered units. The F45's I have coming were ordered with no sound so I can do what I want. But my point was as long as Athearn used MRC I wasn't buying Athearn. Now, I have reached saturation point with my current roster and cannot justify the expense of buying more diesels, now or in the future. There is nothing left Santa Fe wise other than a non Trainman GP39-2 that I would be interested in.
So bottom line, I don't plan any more expenditures for motive power at this time. In fact, at my age, I am slowing down on all purchases of equipment as I have reached the same saturation point in about every catagory. I am now enjoying operations and running what I have.
cmarchan I emailed Athearn yesterday and they assured me the Tsunami decoders are full featured. No worries.
The HO ones may be, but the N Scale ones are not.
cmarchan David, I emailed Athearn yesterday and they assured me the Tsunami decoders are full featured. No worries.
Carl,
Thanks for posting. One thing that I've been complimenting Soundtraxx on is their recordings of the P5 and P5a horns. AFAIK, no other DCC Sound manufacturer offers those particualr horn sounds. These horns were very popular among eastern and southeastern roads, including the Southern Railway, and Norfolk & Western. The Georgia Central and Norfolk Southern still have P5 horns on a number of 2nd generation units.
Amtrak F40s were originally equipped with Nathan P5a horns before the fleetwide adoption of the K5La horn in the late 70s. IMHO, when tuned properly, an echoing prototype P5a horn sounds quite melodic
Very glad to know that we will be able to use the "reverb" and "equalizer" features on the Diesel Tsunami.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"