Does Anyone Make Sound for N Scale DC Engines?

[gatrhumpy]

??? I'd like to add on-board sound to my DC engines (i.e. constant diesel engine sounds), but is this possible without converting to DCC?

[gatrhumpy]

What type of quality control issues are we talking about here? The decoders burn out early?

And the sound does not need to be perfect or crystal clear, just something to give an added dimension to the layout.

[gatrhumpy]

I'm talking about regular current, not DCC. I do not have a DCC system. Is there a sound system that could be put into a regular loco without DCC?

[Vail and Southwestern RR]

As far as I am aware, there is no DC sound in N scale.  I think the options would be some kind of under-layout system, or, perhaps, something perhaps cobbled into boxcars.  I don't see why that couldn't be done, though limiting things to DC would make it harder.

[gatrhumpy]

Do the engines require DC or AC current?

[CSX Robert]

Virtually all of the currently available DCC sound decoders, including the MRC ones, will operate on DC, but that leaves you with the problem of how do you trigger sounds(idle and running sounds, and usually some random sounds will usually sound automatically, but you can't operate other sounds such as the bell and horn or whistle). MRC does offer a "Black Box" that can connect between your power pack and track for operating decoder equipped engines, but if I was going to go that route, I would just switch to DCC. The Black Box actually has a DCC output, so you have to switch it out of the circuit to run DC trains. If you are going to go to that much trouble, you might as well get a real DCC system so that you can adjust decoder settings and run more than one engine independently.

davidmbedard

The sound is best described as white noise...

While the MRC sound decoders do not sound as good as higher end decoders, in my opinion, they sound a whole lot better than "white noise." Here is a video of one if you want to judge for yourself.

That being said, I cannot recommend MRC sound decoders because of the problems others have had with them. I personally have exactly one MRC sound decoder(in an Athearn Challenger) and have not had any trouble with it whatsoever. I am satisfied with the sound, although it could be better. The motor control is not the greatest either, it's OK for how I use it - an ocassional excursion run through, but I would not want to use it for a lot of switching. There are a lot of people using MRC sound decoders that are quite happy with them, but unfortunately, there are also a lot of people who have had a lot of problems with them.

[CSX Robert]

Virtually all of the currently available DCC sound decoders, including the MRC ones, will operate on DC, but that leaves you with the problem of how do you trigger sounds(idle and running sounds, and usually some random sounds will usually sound automatically, but you can't operate other sounds such as the bell and horn or whistle). MRC does offer a "Black Box" that can connect between your power pack and track for operating decoder equipped engines, but if I was going to go that route, I would just switch to DCC. The Black Box actually has a DCC output, so you have to switch it out of the circuit to run DC trains. If you are going to go to that much trouble, you might as well get a real DCC system so that you can adjust decoder settings and run more than one engine independently.

davidmbedard

The sound is best described as white noise...

While the MRC sound decoders do not sound as good as higher end decoders, in my opinion, they sound a whole lot better than "white noise." Here is a video of one if you want to judge for yourself.

That being said, I cannot recommend MRC sound decoders because of the problems others have had with them. I personally have exactly one MRC sound decoder(in an Athearn Challenger) and have not had any trouble with it whatsoever. I am satisfied with the sound, although it could be better. The motor control is not the greatest either, it's OK for how I use it - an ocassional excursion run through, but I would not want to use it for a lot of switching. There are a lot of people using MRC sound decoders that are quite happy with them, but unfortunately, there are also a lot of people who have had a lot of problems with them.