I’m sure this has been talked about before, but the Search is a litttle cumbersome to use. I am looking at an Athearn Genesis F7A/B with sound. Before I plunk down a fair amount of money, I wanted some opinions regarding this series. I have Atlas, Proto and BLI which I like, but have no history with the Athearn Genesis.
Thanks,
Jeff
I would get it without sound and install your own. The provided MRC decoder is feature-less and unreliable (tends to destroy itself).
David B
In my opinion the Athearn Genesis F units are mechanically appoximately equal to all that you have mentioned. The “Highliner” shells used on them are definitely first rate in the detail and accuracy category. The issue with the unit is the “with sound” part. Athearn uses MRC electronics and I find their sound units to be poor quality both in the sound(s) produced and the reliability of the units. The sound is coarse and blarry (did I just make up a word?), some is due to the lack of control of volume so that even on the lowest setting they are too loud.
As previous poster already suggested, I would recommend purcshasing the locomotive(s) without sound, and adding a sound unit from another vendor such as QSI, LocSound, or Soundtraxx.
The Genisis line uses better motors and has better detailing than the regular Athearn line. However I would check Walthers to see if they offer the F-7 road you like in the Proto 2000 series. If you shop around, you will find they are a similar price. AND the Proto 2000’s have better details, as well as a much better QSI DCC drive.
For the record: I own 1 Walthers F-7 and 3 Athearn Genesis F7 A-B-A. The later is frustrating because the engines don’t all run at the same speed and they have no programable speed tables per NMRA OP registers CV67-CV94.
Thanks to all that posted. Kind of confirmed my suspicions regarding the Athearn Genesis. I will look for non-sound unit and add a sound decoder. Any recomendations?
Jeff
Since I was also considering a sound equipped Athearn Genesis, I found this discussion very helpful, especially the responses that actually explained their problems with the factory installed decoders.
The question that follows is, do non-decoder equipped Genesis series locomotives come DCC ready? Also, is part of the problem with MRC sound quality in the Genesis series the speaker? In other words, in replacing the decoder, should the speaker go as well?
According to the Athearn website, the non-decoder equipped models are DCC ready. I have a Genesis sound equipped SD60M which is in my junk pile. The model was fine until I bumped it while it was stationary on the rails. From there everything went down hill. At first it had a difficult time running in the forward direction, and from there it lost the sound and all functions. I’ve tried resetting it and everything. I would say if you are going to replace the decoder replace the speaker too. The sound from the speaker I had was too tin-like, I’ve heard the same thing throughout these forums. Try listening to the LOK Sound samples on their website, those are pretty good. [:)]
I also have a four engine set of Athearn Genesis that I want to add sound to. I’ve been doing a lot of reading as I’m new to this DCC & Sound world. It appears to me that the QSI Revolution and the Tsunami are at the top in terms of best possible decoder/sound uinits.
And it would appear as though it might be best to utilize the newer HB (high bass) spearker(s)?? In looking at various photos of these units, it appears as most installations utilize a single speaker at the rear of the frame, and pointed downward??
I heard mention on another forum that Model Railroader had a recent article about this subject of "‘adding a decoder to an Athearn Genesis F unit’ sometime in the fall of 2008? Can someone tell me whi
Keep in mind that with High Bass speakers you loose the treble end. It is best to do a 2 speaker system and have a smaller speaker along with the HB speaker.
David B
Thanks for all the info - won’t be buying the Genesis units with factory sound. You mention installing a dual speaker system to achieve good bass and treble. Makes sense just as in a car or home theater. But I look inside the SD 70 hood and go, “Where is there space?”.
Any one making water expandable speakers? Campbells?
Have a look back at what I said about his Genesis F units…GOOD sound.
I wrote, “but it does appear to be really good sound. I believe he has indicated that they are MRC decoders. And most interesting they appear to project sound thru the top rear grills (two small rectanges on F3) and the side grills at the rear. Is it possible that this speaker is mounted in the up position? I had also been led to believe that sound was generally best if from two speakers and pointed downward??”
From another forum, “Since the F units have see through fans, mounting the speakers upward seemed to work fine. He drilled out the exhaust stacks to give a little more open area for the sound and they sound like a real F unit to me. He had to mill the weights a little to get the top firing speakers but he said it was way easier than trying to mount them so they were down firing.”
I wrote, “Here is the photo I have of the ‘stock’ Genesis speaker installation in an F7 unit. I don’t see vented areas above the speaker location on the F7 locos. What ever model F unit my friend has, has two retangular vents (like those in the front of this F7 loco) right over this rear speaker location. So there appears to be good sound out of those top vents, and the vents on the sides at the rear.”
He responded, " That’s a Phase 1 F-7. That model has the two horizontal slits on the roof for dynamic brakes. They were replaced with a 48" dynamic brake fan on units so equipped. On my friend’s engines, the side grills are open at the rear of the body to let out sound. My friend mounted the QSI speaker a little forward of that position and then drilled out the two exhaust stacks you see between the fans since his road doesn’t have dynamic brakes. The combination seemed to provide more than enough sound."
Hi Jeff,
As the proud owner of 5 Genesis F units, I would whole-heartedly recommend buying them without sound. I have had nothing but flaky problems with them. Three went back to Athearn for warranty repairs and they still had problems when I got them back. Problems range from horn and bell not working to units not 'taking" a new address.
They are nicely detailed and beautifully painted, so it would be worth just putting a DCC sound decoder in yourself.
Regards,
Greg
Are the sound decoders the only disasters or are the mobile decoders a disaster also? I have the Genesis Big Boy and Challengers and so far so good. I intend replacing eventually at the lst sign, probably with Tsunami.
I have one of the Genesis Challengers and have not experienced any problems. It was worth every penny. [:)]
How long have you had yours and approx. how many running hours? I’m just starting to lay my track so only have a couple of hours on mine. Thanks. Those MRCs make me nervous. The models are beautiful things and I’d like to get another of each eventually.
I have a Genesis Challenger too. It works most of the time. I did have troubles when it was new with setting the long address. I finally had to resort to resetting it in analog mode. After that, it seems to be doing better. Other than being a bit loud (even when I adjusted it), it does sound nice.
I wish Athearn would get their act together with the sound decoders and the F7s. I want to give them my money, I really do! [;)]
Take care,
Greg
I also have one of those Challengers that I experienced a problem with at first, but I chalked that up to my lack of knowledge of DCC and programing. I had to get a more experienced person to reprogram it (or reset defaults ?) to get it to run.
Now that I think about it, I believe I recall one of the websites I visited lately commenting on the fact that some of the Soundtraxx decoders come preset to DCC mode even though they are duel-mode decoders (DC & DCC)…strange for the DC person to have to seek out a DCC system to get his loco to work on his DC layout. [?]
I’m running DCC. I had to reprogram the four digit address on the Challenger. But it took it fine. I may not know if my MRC/Athearn issues will surface until more run time or I do more custom CV programming. It SEEMS if I leave the factory presets things have been fine so far. The Genesis models are really nice and finely detailed so along with everyone else I hope that once the MRC contract has elapsed, Athearn will use something else. So far the Big Boy has been behaving fine and remembering it’s address. I hope this hasn’t been too much of a highjack from the OP’s F7 questions but figure they’re they same basic MRC decoder issues…
I have just over 200 diesels on and off my railroad. I don’t really like a lot of sound, especially during an operating session. Therefore about one fourth of my diesels have sound, the rest are silent. Of the sound units, all but a couple are Atlas. I have Genesis diesels, SD45-2 and FP45’s, all have had the sound removed that came from the factory. Enough said.
Bob