I have 2 of the new HO scale Athearn SD70ACe diesels being shipped this week. The ones I purchased are DCC w/sound. Has anyone else purchased any? IF so what is your opinion of them? If I like them I plan on ordering 2 more.
BF1956…
I just received mine two days ago and, to be honest, I’m quite disappointed. I had cancelled most of the order prior to receiving these as they were already coming so I fullfilled my obligation to purchase them.
I realize everyone is going to have a different perspective on this but I think Athearn really cut some corners on this project -and that is a shame because this model could have been much better.
My first objection was upon removal from packaging, the d@!#@! handrails were all bent, loose or coming apart, which requires my having to ‘make repairs’ out of the box.
This has become more the ‘norm’ for Athearn, but…I had high hopes that they were making strides in improving this as the GP15-1’s,earlier MP15’s and even the RTR SW1500s, had much improved handrail quality - not so with the SD70ACe.
Secondly, the Tsunami- built Sound decoder, really disappointed me, in terms of the over all quality of the sounds- especially the Horn - which sounds pitiful.
This is NOT the quality sound I’d come to expect from Soundtraxx - I expected much better.
It doesn’t appear that you have as much control over the sound other than basic volume control but I haven’t played around with it long enough to know for sure, so I could be wrong about that.
Pluses:
The cab roof, was better fitting than what I had expected but I still think this was a waste of tooling cost.
Paint was excellent and should be expected from Athearn.
Nice chassis details - but will require fragile handling to avoid breakage of small details
Well done horn casting
Disapointments:
Sloppy assembly for a model in this range - I would expect this on a RTR - not on a Genesis.
Radiator Fan housings appear too tall.
Traction motor inverter cabinet intake grilles are made of a mesh material that does not resemble the prototype at all
I have two of them. I have no sound issues. Every CV that I program into my other units with Tsunamis installed, works with these units.
I do have a couple of complaints though. I don’t understand why they made the cab roof removable. It doesn’t look right. I think its nice they have a painted interior, but with the side windows tinted, you can see anything.
My biggest complaint is the long sand air lines on both ends of the trucks. I had to remove the shell on one unit to fix a clicking sound. Those air lines are too flimsy. I think they should have attached to the frame instead of the shell. Also, the paint has flaked off of those aforementioned parts.
Overall, I will keep these, but they could have been designed better.
Thanks for the well written article.
I have just received mine Friday afternoon. I agree about the handrails but pushed in and bent at the front end and rear but once I unpacked them they formed out better.None of them were broken fortunately. I purchased 2 MP15AC locomotives last year and they run just OK in my opinion, Other than those I have not purchased any other Athearn, RTR or Genesis . I have mostly Kato engines. Kato doesn’t put out many HO engines like they used to. I use Digitrax DCC. I have no experience with sound, these are the first sound units for me. l am in a learning curve on how to use it. I live in rural Alabama so I don’t get to see the models before I order them online. I have ordered most everything I have through Toy Train Heaven for the past 20 years. They are easy to deal with if I chose to return them.
You spoke highly of the MTH SD 70ACe engines. I haven’t seen any. Sounds like you prefer them. That is one reason I subscribed to MR for the forums for the info. I will have to check out the MTH SD70ACe.
Thanks Jerry
HF1
Do you like the MTH SD70ACe better than the new Athearn SD70ACe units? I have Not seen the MTH units.
Thanks
i have not yet seen the athearn ACe but i have athearn genesis engines and im really impressed with my mth i have the dcc ready unit so i dont have the board problems with it
I also was disappointed in the sound. it was horrible. Basically not very loud. I have some BLI UP AC6000 locomotives with the Paragon 2 sound. the BLIs are about 3 times as loud out of the box. The horn on the new Athearn was the lowest sound of all the other sounds on it. I even ran every sound related CV to its highest level, including the eq levels and it did not really improve. I read on some other forum that the problem is related to the speaker enclosure was not sealed properly. I am not sure if that was the case, but I am not about to open up a $230 or so loco up and look around, when it just arrived. The dealer is refunding my money, minus shipping. I think I will stick to BLI for now.
It sounds like another person here did not have any issues with the sound, so maybe mine was just a lemon.
Yes Chuck, it is reported on other lists the sound on the Athearn Ace is too low and not very good. I also like very much Paragon2 sound especially on their SD40-2. On the MTH ACe i think the sound is also good but prefer Paragon2 a matter of taste I guess.
Why do modelers want their sound to be loud, I don’t know, at my club the rule is to reduce sound so it is barely audible from 5-6 feet distance. During official operation day, sound must be muted as it get annoying after a while.
I think with me, it is because my ears are shot hahah I was a broadcast engineer for Radio for about 30 years…too much rock and roll. Recently I totally muted all of my engines and liked it as well. I can see at a club how it could be hard to concentrate with all the noise. Not only that, but loud listening for prolonged times cause listener fatigue and you physically become tired.
I am hoping BLI comes out with a BNSF something… so I can add it to the layout. right now I have all UP and SP, but I want some BNSF. I am emulating Phoenix Arizona areas (Desert) and we see some BNSF along with UP… (and in the old days SP).
Hi BlackFlag1956…
I don’t know if “like better” is the correct term.
I’ve had the MTH models longer and have become accustomed to how they run and operate, which I’m very pleased with. The 16bit digital recorded sound files are astounding - I like the Tsunami decoders with sound but the reprodcution quality of the factory sound is unmatched.
So far, the Athearn model runs like an Athearn model - it will require some fine-tuning to get it wher I want it - I adjust everything against the MTH, as they are by far, the smoothest and most powerful models I’ve encountered -including the paper weight BLI AC6000.
Some people say that the MTH ‘dosen’t play well’ with the other brands - that is not a true statement.
As the benchmark drive, the MTH is so smooth and the speed sensitivity is regulated at speed step 1 = 1 scale MPH, I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want all of their locomotives to run this way - so, it’s a matter of simply adjusting primarily two CV’s to match the performance to the MTH.
Motor intensity and Motor apreture CV settings will allow Athearn models to run very well with the MTH - in fact, I’ve ahd to make very little trim adjustements to Kato or Atlas drives.
The Athearn model has more finescale detail in the Chassis area, but my concern is that:
a. most of it is so small and delicate, I’m not sure it is relavant not to mention, I expect in normal use, that a lot of these parts will come loose, fall of or get snagged on something and be ripped loose or broken, being familar with Athearn’s assembly quality.
b. While all that detail looks good on a static model, in practical use, I’m not convinced based on past experiences, that having a lot of broken or missing detail parts down
I recently purchased the MTH version of these locomotives. I have to say that I am really impressed with these units. They pull like nobody’s business and are very smooth.
The only issue I have had with either one of them is excessive wheel grime. My one unit will pick up so much grime off my track that after 5 or 10 minutes of running the wheels will loose connectivity with the track. I have to then run it over a rubbing alcohol paper towel to clean the wheels and then I am back in business. Only one of the units do this.
Anyone know why? For the record my track was just cleaned a couple of months ago.
The sound volume level is a known issue, due to the speaker enclosure not being closed at one point. This is an easy fix, there is a hole opening at the bottom of the speaker housing. Take out the housing and cover the hole with some electrical tape and presto your sound will be improved.
Do you know what version sound you have on the MTH engines? I have looked online and noticed that MTH is now offering Pro Sound 3.0. The engines with the 3.0 are mostly sold out, but there are still some avaialbe with the revesion 2.0. Does it really matter?
Thanks for all ypur insightful info.
BF1956
Hi BF1956,
If you seen an MTH SD70 advertised as having “Protosound 2.0” it is an O-scale engine, not HO. All the HO SD70ACe’s come with either Protosound 3.0 or are DCC ready without a decoder.
You can tell a lot about what you’re looking at from MTH by paying attention to the item numbers. Here’s an example. The UP Heritage MoPac engine with PS3 is item number 80-2007-1. The first two digits tell you what product line the item is in.
80 = HO prototype models
81 = HO “Imagination Series” non-prototypical models
The Protosound 2.0 engine you saw would have had an item number starting in 20 (Premier line O-scale) or 30 (Railking O-gauge sub scale toy).
The last digit tells you about the drive and electronics. These numbers have slightly different meanings depending on the product line, but here’s the possibilities for HO.
-0 = DCC ready 2-rail HO
-1 = Protosound 3.0 DCC/DCS equipped 2-rail HO
-5 = Protosound 3E+ DCC/DCS/Marklin Digital equipped 3-rail HO
BF1956…
Dave Hikel is correct… the HO Sd70ACe models all were/are 3.0 version.
It will be interesting to see what the 3E vesion may bring in the future.
However, this may not be a version for these locomotives.
I don’t expect to see any new upgrades on the SD70ACe models until next year but, then again, I haven’t been looking on the website.
The next batch will be the Comfort Cabs due in December, as verified by MTH.
Hope this helps - thanks Dave.
HF1
I can contribute with the following:
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I have an MP15AC with Tsunami and the sound was absolutely horrible. The speaker was small and had no real sound enclosure. I changed the speaker out to a medium oval, added an enclosure, set the sound files with decoder pro using the equalizer and now it rumbles!!! I also changed the function mapping to the aftermarket Tsunami’s so that I get F11 braking, etc.
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I have an MTH SD70ACe with Pro 3. The sound on this is really good as the speakers are very well enclosed, the sound files are crisply reproduced, etc. I question if the sound files are really of an SD70ACe however vs an older 710 prime mover. The loco runs great, looks great and has DCC uncouplers. But few of the CVs are user configurable as most other decoders. For example you can’t change the volume of the different sound elements individually. MTH is not really DCC, it is DCS.
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As an aside note, as I have to keep turning the volume down on the loco, I start to believe the sound system is good.
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I don’t know MTH’s customer service, but have found Athearn’s to be good.
This may be a tiny bit off topic, but does anyone know when/if MTH will produce a GEVO in HO?
T/M…
I can attest to MTH’s Customer Service as being very good - I’ve never ever called them witohut getting the answers I needed in a quick and polite manner, and if i didn’t reach who I needed to talk with, I always get an email or call back within 24 hrs.
Athearn has always had very good customer service and its a good thing, because some of the crap they are turning out will need the attention of their best customer service reps.
Athearn is become a really sore spot with me in the last few days, with the release of these SD70 ACe models.
Yesterday, I finally decided to buy one at a LHS, in the KCS scheme - I was fortunate that they had several to choose from as it took 4 different models, before I found one that didn’t have parts damaged, falling off, nearly all had jacked up handrails and Ditchlights that were sloppily installed with one aiming to the right and the other upward. This was the norm on the models I’ve looked at and those bought by a few friends.
It is unbelievable.
Once I got it home, I thought I could get the sound to improve, as the factory sound is pathetic - no volume. This is NOT due to Tsunami - they make an excellent product and other than factory sound, I would not choose any other brand.
I was determined to make this model sound better, so I disassembled the model and removed the shell to expose the existing speaker and housing.
To make a long story short, the speaker supplied is simply too small to handle the range of frequencies that the Tsunami is capable of, and relies on the body shell as a chamber.
To make room for a 14X52mm Bass Reflex speaker, I had to remove the Radiator section( a real pain)by drilling the glued in pins in side then lifting this off.
Now, to make room for the additional speaker, I had to saw and cut the carbody undersection completely out so that the speaker would fit once the Radiator was reinstalled.
After two hours of work, I finally got the loco r
A / Y…
God, I hope so. That would be a very nice adddition to my roster, allthough the photos of the UP Intermountain doesn’t look too bad…
It looks a lot like the T55 version but it’s differnet tooling - it should be a winner.
Got mine on order.
H/F
That’s not likely. Intermountain has their GEVO coming out over the next few months (ES44AC) and next year (ES44DC), and Athearn still owns the T55 tooling for the ES44 which they may bring to market over the next few years (probably when they’re done with the SD70ACe and SD70M-2).
I doubt we’ll see an MTH GEVO any time soon, if ever. If they did, it would be a heck of a gamble (unless of course IM’s model is a total flop and Athearn doesn’t get their’s out any time soon). Although given some of what has come out in recent time that I never would have predicted would, nothing would really surprise me.