Is basic DCC good?

[Rangerover1944]

Simon and all others who responded to my post thanks for the input and please excuse me for hijacking the thread. I've made up my mind that Digitrax is the right path for me. I've converted a good number of loco's with Digitrax decoders  and never had a problem with that product and I have done enough research and listened to lots of users here and on other sites about Digitrax. I can sell my Bachmann stuff on eBay and make the upgrade. Oh and that $1,000.00 price is what 7 years ago when I was first introduced to DCC. We all know that LHS are sometimes more than the listed retail suggested price. I remember buying my first Atlas DCC with sound and he gave me a break of $10.00 on it. I still paid $240.00 for it. The internet is how I shop in the last 6 years, and I know that no matter what I'm looking for I purchase from reliable sources even if it isn't the lowest price possible for reason's this thread is not intended for. My LHS is 120 miles round trip and now has very little train stuff and unreachable as far as price. Thanx men, Jim

[tstage]

And you don't have to limit yourself to just Digitrax decoders, Rangerover.  NCE, TCS, and Lenz also make very fine decoders worthy of consideration.

I'm particularly fond of the Lenz Silver and Gold decoders.  They're a little pricier but their BEMF is just excellent.   I've got a Silver MP decoder installed in a BLI BlueLine Niagara that crawls as well as - if not better than - most of my much smaller switchers.

Tom

[simon1966]

I'm with Tom on this one.   My system is Digitrax but I tend to use NCE as my low cost fleet decoder and TCS for installs where I want a bit more performance.  I am not overly fond of how Digitrax decoders handle lighting effects when using LED's so tend not to use their decoders.

[rrinker]

 Make that 3 on decoders and 2 on systems. I will never switch from my Digitrax system but I have nary a one Digitrax decoder. I had previously standardized on the NCE D13SRJ where it would fit - at $12 each in 10 packs you don't have to put off upgrading your fleet, and they are a very high quality decoder with great running characteristics. At the time, TCS was just more expensive and didn;t really do anything, and Digitrax was a lot more expensive, at least for the BEMF decoders, and the BEMF, well, stinks. There's a big 'jump' in speed between certain speed steps hat you can, with a lot of trial end error fiddling, tune mostly out, but it's annoying. Since starting my current layout, moving slower and also being in better shape with respect to hobby spending, I've standardized on TCS, the new ones have a very nice auto-adjusting BEMF and they have form factors to fit nearly anything. They are now my "go to" decoder of choice, everythign currently running on my layout that doesn;t have sound is using a TCS decoder of some sort, mostly the T1 but in space limited situations I have some DP2 and MC2 (in a 44-tonner).

 That's the beauty of the DCC standard, you cna use anyone's decoders on anyone's system. either to get the decoder that is the easiest to install in a particular loco or to, as I have tried to do, standardize on one brand or another.

            --Randy