I recently purchased an N scale Kato 2-8-2 to add to my fleet. I have three others, and they all have TCS decoders inside. I added sound to one of these units with a Loksound decoder some years ago. So my question is, if I want to put sound in this new steamer, do I need to put in a motor decoder and a sound decoder, or will I be able to do it with just one? This time I might try a Tsunami instead of the Loksound.
Thanks in advance,
Scott
In N scale,space is at a premium and even one sound decoder with its speaker is sometimes a pretty tight fit,so the Tsunami or Loksound are probably your only options.
The only sound-only decoders I know of are from Digitrax. By today's standards, they are kind of primitive. They use 8-bit sound, while all the other major brands use 16-bit sound. The output volume of some of them is so low that you can barely hear them.
If you buy a Tsunami or Loksound, you will only have 1 decoder and you will have both better motor performance and better sound. On the other hand, it will cost more.
Other than price, there's no reason not to go with Tsunami or Loksound.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
QSI's new Titan might not be a bad choice either.
Richard
Thanks guys, for all your help. I will probably only go with one this time.
And Richard, I will have to give the Titan a listen before I choose. Thanks for the heads up.
A fellow club member had Tony's install a Tsunami Micro in his 2-8-2. It sounds real nice. BTW, that install is probably one of the hardest N scale Decoder installations.
Martin Myers