sound

[Anonymous]

Hi I'm new to all of this, so here I go; I have a Bachmann 2-8-0 I would like to put sound in, IS sierra sound any good [?]

[Anonymous]

Hi Max,
A big hello from the Brit end of the hobby. I don't have sound in my loco's, but from what I have read the Sierra system seems to be good, but like all digital systems, expensive. Someone who has got one will soon pick up on this, enjoy.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[unclejoe009]

Hey Max. I have Sierra in two engines, Bachmann Shay and USA Trains GP-9 and both are decent quality sound systems, especially the shay. I have no experience with Phoenix, however I will be putting a Phoenix sound system in my Dash-9. The big draw back to Phoenix however is its high price, which is around $300, while I believe I only payed less than $200 for Sierra. But if you haven't done so already check out their websites www.soundtraxx.com and www.phoenixsound.com respectively. Hope you find what you need, and like Kim said above, I'm sure more folks will be along to make their reccomendations as well. Good luck!

Matt

[bman36]

QUOTE: Originally posted by britt119

Hi I'm new to all of this, so here I go; I have a Bachmann 2-8-0 I would like to put sound in, IS sierra sound any good [?]

Hi there,
[#welcome] to the forum! Glad to have you aboard. I too have Soundtraxx Sierra in my Shay as well as my Aristo FA1. Sierra is very good for the price. One vital key to getting good sound is making a speaker enclosure. Hardwood is best and will give the best quality sound. Build a small box and seal the seams with wood glue. This will make all the difference in the world. I did this with the FA1 and it gave it a much better rumble at low volume. Being a diesel I wanted it to sound good. Try the sound system first and see how you like it. You can always make a speaker enclosure after and hear the difference it makes. Enjoy the forum! Later eh...Brian.

[cacole]

Yes, the SoundTraxx Sierra is a good sound system for the Bachmann 2-8-0 because it is digitized sounds of a real 2-8-0. Before purchasing a sound system, I checked into both the SoundTraxx and Phoenix. After listening to the sound samples on the Web sites, the Phoenix system seemed to be far better; however, I then heard a Sierra at a hobby shop and learned that the sound samples on the SoundTraxx Web site don't do justice to the actual product.

[jebouck]

Be prepared to do a lot of soldering with Sierra.[:(][V]
Sierra has half the output of Phoenix, therefore half the volume.
Phoenix is basically attaching wires to the motherboard with small screws-very easy and user friendly.
Sierra needs to be programmed for various effects. That can be frustrating to some, sitting there and counting beeps and blips.
Phoenix can be programmed on a computer with the optional interface.
In my opinion, Phoenix is the only way to go.
I have installed three Sierra's (and never will again) and about 20 Phoenix's.
jb

[marlboro]

Phoenix all they way, there is no other way comparison wise, have each of these boards, and given the same sound in the same engine in the same enclosure with same speaker, PHOENIX!!!!!!! Its night and day, no contest, winner by knockout!!!! Its worth the extra hundred or so dollars, plus added bonus the computer interface package to change style or sound of board in a heartbeat!!!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your responses to my question. Sounds like I have some more investigation to do on both Phoenix & Sierra. Thanks for letting me know that the web sounds don't do justice. My hobby shop does not carry this item. Any suggestions on where to shop for the best buy?
Thanks again,Max

[jnichols]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jebouck

Be prepared to do a lot of soldering with Sierra.[:(][V]
Sierra has half the output of Phoenix, therefore half the volume.
jb

Not to rock the boat, but I just installed a Sierra in the 2-8-0 using the 2-8-0 kit and never touched a soldering iron (other than soldering things to the locomotive connectors) as the board was supplied with screw terminals. Are you sure you're talking about a Sierra, or one of the DCC decoders Soundtraxx sells? As far as the output goes, I can't imagine wanting a sound system louder than this. I was and still am amazed at the quality and quantity of the output from this sound system and couldn't be happier... [:D]

As a side note, I've been warned by more than one radio control vendor about complications with the RF noise generated by the Phoenix system interfering with the operations of the R/C system. If you are interested in radio control, I would be sure to research this more.

Jeff

[jebouck]

Sierra:
You must solder wires to the battery charging jack.
You must solder wires from one of the track pickups to the off-on switch.
You must solder wires from terminal 8 to the off-on switch
You must solder a wire from the power plug to the off-on switch.
You must butt conect (or solder) a wire from the power plug in and the battery to the battery charging plug.

Jeff, how did you accompli***his without soldering? Has Sierra pre-soldered all these parts for you now? It's been two years since I did a Sierra.

jb

[jnichols]

jb,

You are correct, those parts needed to be soldered. I assumed you were talking about the connections that are actually made to the board itself. All of the Soundtraxx DCC decoders require you to solder these wires as well as the locomotive side wiring. After many years and hundreds of decoder installations in N scale locomotives, I got through the Sierra installation in about 15 minutes and thought it to be quite straight forward.

While I agree the sound quality and configurability may be a bit better with the Phoenix decoders, the Sierra boards seem more suited to R/C - battery installations and are almost half the available price. The high current draw and RF interference of the Phoenix boards makes quality R/C operations unrealistic from what I've been told, but if I were doing track power, I might have gone a different direction... [:D]

Are you running R/C or track power? I would be interested to hear from an end user about the R/C issues.

Jeff

[jebouck]

QUOTE: Are you running R/C or track power?

Track power right now,
but considering a type of DCC in the future.
jb

[Anonymous]

Don't let soldering keep you away, it's just not that hard of a task. Go buy the highest wattage gun you can afford, flux, solder, and an inexpensive spool of wire and practice. Once you've done it a time or two you'll say to yourself" What was the big deal"
Can't say I've solder anthing locomotive wise but Ive use it on power tools and my cars alot.

Just take the plunge. [;)][:)]

[Anonymous]

unclejoe:

Phoenix install in the Dash-9 is about a 20 min project. Most of it installing the reed switches. Everything else is plug in. Extremely easy, and it has a superb sound.

[marlboro]

Again, to mention the interface kit where you can change the sound of a given board from diesels(several types of locos) to European steam to American steam. I consider myself lucky, because I don t have to buy the interface kit, because my dealer has one, and whenever I get tired of a given sound, I just yank the board out, 5 mins, and go to see my dealer, he plugs my board into his Phoenix interface kit, and says to me, So what do you wanna hear this week, No charge BTW!!!! Don t know if Sierra has these capabilities with their boards.

[cacole]

I have installed two SoundTraxx Sierra and AirWire 900 Wireless DCC systems into Bachmann 1:20.3 scale engines -- a 2-8-0 Consolidation and a 2-6-0 Mogul. With the AirWire 900 you must use battery power instead of track power. There is no soldering involved to connect the AirWire 900 or Sierra systems, because both have screw terminals, but you need to be knowledgeable of electronics and soldering because you must remove all of the Bachmann electrical pickups and circuit boards from the locomotive and tender, and replace some of the wiring. Soldering is necessary because Bachmann does not solder wires to the chuff sensor circuit board in the tender, and two wires need to be added inside the tender to the circuit board that connects to the 4-wire connector from the locomotive, but this is all light-duty soldering that a 15 Watt soldering iron can easily handle. The rechargeable battery that comes with the Sierra (or Phoenix) sound systems is designed to keep the sounds active when you're running on track power and stop your locomotive, but is not even necessary when you're running your locomotive from battery power.

[jnichols]

cacole,

Did you have to build any opto isolation circuits with the AirWire board and Sierra? It seems like all the control systems require this as the motor circuit input of the Sierra is very sensitive to voltage, and the whistle/bell inputs need to reference to ground (something most of the decoders can't provide).

I would love to get some feedback about this as I have not tried it myself, but was very interested in the CVP Airwire system.

Thanks in advance!

Jeff

[Anonymous]

I have two LGB sound systems neither do the job completely but one is much better than the other. I have had a Phoenix in a track cleaning loco and it wasn't 100 % either, however I blame the installers not the system; in fact i think it was outstanding. Unfortunartely the loco the Phoenix was in didn't work properly and it become the subject ob legal action and i no longer have it.

Rgds ian

[cacole]

jnichols --

No, I did not need to add anything except a function-only decoder to control the sound effects of the Sierra. The Sierra's default settings are for certain sounds to occur automatically according to track voltage and direction of travel, but when you're not using track voltage these sounds don't occur, so a function-only decoder using the Auxiliary DCC outputs of the AirWire900 circuit board are used to trigger the sounds from the hand-held controller's function keys.

This is a better system, anyway, because it gives the operator total control over the sounds instead of relying on the Sierra to do them automatically, and sometimes unrealistically.

[Anonymous]

How these systems have come on in a few short years. I have spent the weekend pulling to bits some old scratchbuilt/bashed loco's that I did in the 80's and I have found 2 old sound boards that I had forgot about. Do you remember the slope back tender that either USA or Aristo did? I used the tender body for the front (or back) end of a covered shay that I built and put together another body for the chassis of the tender. The sound unit is still fixed to the chassis and still works but it's primitive, go too fast and you get one continuous roar. The other is a unit I bought from GRS here in the UK & I have no idea who made it. It's a little more sophisticated in that the time between 'chuffs' is variable and doesn't sound that bad, it aslo utilises a battery for steam hiss after the loco stops. This also works well after soldering back on the feed wires, it's half fitted into my C16 now, so I have gone from soundless to sound by just having a rumage around. I remember how impressed I was with the LGB Mogul sound when it came out, little did I realise then that I would be fitting retro sound systems in a few short years!
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[Anonymous]

Very interesting Kim.


Rgds ian

[van buren s l]

Since I live a half mile from the B&O Metropolitan Branch I use CSX sound. It is very realistic but sort of intermittent.
Bob

[Anonymous]

Check this site out, ran across it on MLS. It tells you how to improve the sound of the bachmann locos factory chuff. http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips.html

It's under big hauler tips, unsure as to wether or not it would 2-8-0 but check it out.

[powlee]

Hi Guys, help me me out.
[:I][?]
Just installing phoenix sound in my GP9. Total novice. Just running a basic system at the moment.
I did not order any track magnets and they would be in short supply over here. Can I use other brand magnets or make my own.
Ian P[%-)][D)]

[Anonymous]

My Phoenix system didn't require track magnets as it was activated digitally and i don't know if they are applicable or not. Interesting thing Ian but when you program your loco you then have to do it again for the sound system, ie you need to prgramme it twice and thats in the instructions.


regrds ian

[Anonymous]

I just added a phoenix sound card to my Bachmann 2-8-0 but can only get sound out of the thing when running in reverse. I've checked all the wiring but so far I've not found the problem. Does anyone have any suggestions on things I should look for or what I have have done wrong?

I'm very new to thing and it'smy first attempt at putting in a sound card so it's very likely that I've done something wrong...

Thanks!
-evan

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by evanlayton

I just added a phoenix sound card to my Bachmann 2-8-0 but can only get sound out of the thing when running in reverse. I've checked all the wiring but so far I've not found the problem. Does anyone have any suggestions on things I should look for or what I have have done wrong?

I'm very new to thing and it'smy first attempt at putting in a sound card so it's very likely that I've done something wrong...

Thanks!
-evan

Never mind...

I had connected the power leads to the lines going to the rear light so it only got power when in reverse... D'oh!