I debating on purchasing two of Athearn’s SD70ACe’s. I am debating on sound or not. If I go with sound can I replace the lamps with LEDs down the road? Meaning, is the decoder plugged into a seperate light board or does the decoder also serves as a light board? I have two other Genesis units, but they were only offered in DC only.
Thanks for the replies in advance.
Not all sound decoders are created equal.
For these units, I highly suggest the Tsunami GN-1000 EMD 710 as it has the correct prime move sound and has the correct on-board resistors for your Genesis lights. In other words, it is a “pull-out-and-replace-with-same” lightboard type of install. The hard part is finding space for a decent speaker AND baffle.
David B
I’m sure they’ll have a Tsunami sound version available.
All the newer Athearn Genesis locomotives have factory installled Tsunami’s as an option. They switched over sometime after the first run of the F45 as the late run F45 and FP45’s had Tsunami’s in them as Athearn dumped the MRC stuff due to so many issues with the decoders. Not sure on new run N scale, but the HO stuff has the better sound now. Cheers Mike
I thank you all for the suggestions. I made a couple of mistakes regarding this post. First, I basically forgot about this post and just now began to read your responses. Second, I didn’t use the correct words in order to ask the right questions I was looking for. My sincere apologies.
So, I’ll give it a second shot. Does the latest release of Athearn Genesis units with Tsunami sound have particular model (TSU series, AT series, GN series) or something custom made for Athearn?
I am looking at upgrading the lights with LEDs after some hours of service, but I wouldn’t want to buy a unit with sound and find out later that I won’t be able to use the unit’s decoder with the LEDs.
Thank you.