What's the difference between soundsystems..

[daan]

Just wondering. I've been seeing a lot of soundsystems on ebay last few days. Each different from another, but it's hard to find out the differences between them.
I know a bit about Protosounds 1, since I've been focussing on those engines (prices), but what's the difference between it and Protosound 2?
Then, what's the difference between Railsounds, locosounds and the PS1 & 2?
(except they are from different manufacturers)
Which systems have synchronized chuffing on steamers?

I've found a lot of nice engines, but didn't trust to buy a steamer, since unsynchronized chuffing is a must for me on a steamengine and I was not sure if PS1 does have that option...

Which system has the best sounds? Can they all be used with only a direction, bell and whistle button?
Do they have enough loudness to make themselves heard when running a train?

Thanks for helping!

[Anonymous]

Best depends a lot on your ears/hearing. All of them have features that can be accessed from their parent command environment and a subset that can be accessed by basic transformer controls (aka throttle voltage shifts, horn/bell buttons).


PS-1 digitally stored analog recordings. No synchronized chuffing
PS-2 digitally stored digital recordings. Synchronized chuff with selectable chuff rate under DCS
LocoSounds Digitally synthesized sounds (you'd have to be loco or deaf to actually like this "noise")

Signal Sounds Digital recording/playback of horn/whistle and bell only
RS 4.5 Digital recording and playback. Horn/whistle assembled on the fly from input parameters, 2 cuffs per rev, not selectable, some synched (withing 2 chuff limit), many not
RS 5 upgraded version of RS-4.5 with selectable chuff rate
TS digital recording/playback trigered by conventional controls (i.e. horn/whistle, bell). Not all sounds play at same time (i.e. some will cut out others during playback)

In general there are more sounds available under PS-2 but the quality of the sounds from RS are generally better. The way the horn/whistle is assembled on the fly means that the horn/whistle usually sounds a little different on each button press.

[daan]

Thaks Chuck, it's a lot clearer to me now what to look for. Information on the manufacturers website's only tell that their system is the best and can't be better. Your reply is clear and gets me a step further.