sound cards

[blumule]

I just purchased 2 different sound cards by mrc for my g scale trains. I steam and 1 diesel. Got a great buy but was wondering if anyone has any experience with these.Im on a budget so i couldnt afford the higher end cards.Do you reccomend a good speaker?

[cacole]

If you go to the Model Railroader Magazine forums, select the Electronics and DCC Forum, you will see several message threads about how bad MRC sound decoders are.  Most people won't touch them.  Cheap, yes,  Dependable, no.  Cheap junk.  Burn out within one or two minutes, days, or weeks.

I have one called the "Sounder" that I will never install because it gets so hot that it begins to smell of scorching plastic within 10 seconds and will burn your fingers if you touch it, even after sending it back to MRC and having them repair it because it was totally dead when I bought it. 

Any 8 Ohm speaker that fits into your model will work if the decoder does.  If I were you, I'd carefully test these decoders before installing them because you may be sadly disappointed with the results.

Unless these decoders are made specifically for G-scale, they cannot handle the current load of your locomotive's motor and will burn up very quickly.

Here's a "ferinstance": 

http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/170612.aspx 

 

[blumule]

im really blown away by these revelations.I googled these decoders and all i got was fairly decent reviews.But they were mostly smaller scale.These are for g scale so im crossing my fingers.Know anyone looking for a decoder? Just kidding, What would you reccomend for a sound only decoder? Im not really looking to go dcc.

[TonyWalsham]

If you are not going DCC then you do not need a sound decoder.
A sound system designed for DC will work just as well.
They range in price from Phoenix down to Dallee and then MyLocosound.

I vote MyLocosound and Dallee the best value for money if you only want the basics.
If you want the works then Phoenix is the choice, but it will be expensive.

[kstrong]

A few additional thoughts. Most importantly, it's got a ceiling of 21 volts, which is less than what most large scale power supplies put out. Check that output before hooking up the board to anything, lest you turn it into an expensive--albeit momentary--smoke unit. 

Second, it's of very limited use to those who run analog DC, as you can't control the sounds beyond those that are controlled by voltage. I don't remember which ones they are, but I think it's just chuff or diesel motor speed. To control the bells, whistles, etc., you'll need to buy MRC's "little black box" that lets you control those sounds. (This is similar to QSI's box that does the same thing for its sound system.) Nothing wrong with that, but it's an additional purchase. It also does not lend itself to battery R/C installations without using Airwire or other DCC-protocol wireless control.

I'll echo Tony's comments. If you don't need DCC, then the MyLocoSound and Dallee cards are very good values. The current issue has a review of the MyLocoSound system, and a review of the Dallee system will be in an upcoming issue. There's also another inexpensive system being sold by Hyde-Out-Mountain Locomotives that has a basic chuff, bell, and whistle. All of these are $100 or less, and give you control over the chuff where you can synchronize it with the wheels, bells, and whistle. All of them are definitely a better way of spending your money for inexpensive sound.

Later,

K