MRC Sheer Brilliance

[lesterperry]

I have one of these stupid decoders. I cannot get it to syncrnize sound to drivers. Oh yeah it is steam. Is it possible to get it right? It keeps changing first it will chuff and not move then it go and not chuff. should I just throw it out?

Les

[loathar]

If you decide to throw it out, I'll send you the address of my trash can...

[lesterperry]

If you decide to throw it out, I'll send you the address of my trash can...

To late it is gone. I have one tsunami and I think I may make it two. I just visited their web site and listened to the heavy steam and love it.

Les

[Jacktal]

Humm...another one in the statistics...so comforting to know...should I wait for mine to join?Might as well find a seller and buy a Micro Tsunami right away...........How reassuring!!!!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I learned a longh time ago to steer clear of MRC decoders. The two I had were non-sound and both smoked inside of a day. I haven't bought another since.

[lesterperry]

A friend stopped by today. we dug it out of the trash and he messed with it for about 3 hours I guess I will keep it until it fries or I get tired of the sub par performance. As he rode off into the sunset he said I may not have changed your mind about MRC decoders but I saved one from the trash.

 It will be my last one, To much work to make it work and poor performance when it does work. What I am trying to do is have some different sounding locomotives. All of mine are soundtrax. and pretty much sound the same. He suggested digitrax sound decoders. does anyone out there know anything about them?

Les

[cacole]

I have 3 Digitrax SoundFX equipped engines.  Two were factory installed in Tower 55 AC4400 models and one I installed into a Kato C44-9W.  The biggest drawback with SoundFX is a weak horn, even at full volume.  They use a 32 Ohm speaker, which is hard to replace because there are not that many 32 Ohm speakers on the market.  A better quality, properly baffled speaker would probably help, but their stock speaker has no baffle.  Other than that, the sounds are well done and their motor control is excellent.

[Kutter]

A friend of mine uses the QSI sound decoders and they sound great.  You might want to try them.  I've heard that MRC have very bad decoders.  The DCC systems are good but the decoders aren't worth the money or the time of day.

[cacole]

I was thinking of purchasing a Sheer Brilliance decoder to see if MRC had made any improvements in their decoder quality since the days when my first 4 out of 5 MRC decoders went up in smoke, but after reading this thread I've definitely decided to continue shunning them.

[locoworks]

i can't understand with all the failures MRC seem to have, how they are still in business??  and as they are still in business,why they haven't got their act together?? there must be o lot of model shops saying bthe rumours are unfounded, please buy my MRC stock, please.

[cacole]

It's a simple case of probably fewer than one in 100 MRC decoder purchasers belonging to this forum and knowing how bad their decoders are, and enough purchasers just simply throwing them in the trash when they burn out instead of asking for a replacement.  They're obviously making enough money off of the people who just throw the bad ones into the trash to continue making a profit, and as long as they make that profit they don't care about anything else.

[Jacktal]

Simple...it takes a while but I don't think MRC's owners are having it smooth right now.At best,the company will survive but some heads are going to fall as some people haven't done their jobs right and this is going to cost MRC a lot,money wise but much worst in customer's confidence.It takes a long time to build a solid reputation but one single mistake to destroy everything.

They should refund (not replace) every smoked decoders on a "no questions asked" basis and withdraw every other decoders from the market to limit the damages but I very much doubt they will.Then make absolutely sure that any future production of decoders will not be initiated before the prototypes have been fully tested and proven almost indestructible.And even then,their decoders may have a hard time to gain any popularity as they'd have to at least equal the competition and yet be cheaper to convince any potential buyer.You're right,they stand a good chance of going bankrupt.....

[JackR]

I would like to hear from people that are using MRC Prodigy Wireless.  Does it work as good as advertised? Should I buy it?

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.