Cisco Kid I did a little searching of the archives. Maybe the latest ideas are best. I have never used an MRC decoder.....only other supposedly better brands. Retailers have some on sale online now for about $47 (MRC No. 1624). Would they be worth it? I see they are loco specific but I am used to bashing a bit for installs.
I did a little searching of the archives. Maybe the latest ideas are best.
If you shop around you can find better quality Digitrax sound decoders for less than that. In my case, I already had a Digitrax PR3 hooked up to my PC so I could use Decoder Pro, so all I had to do was download the free Digitrax programming software. Now I can buy a decoder and program it to one of several different sound files.
i have a loco that i installed a mrc steam decoder in it. i dont remember the number of decoder. but it was one of the newer ones it was very easy to install. it has the speaker installed already. the sounds are ok not the best i've heard but however i guess its good for the money you pay i will probably will not buy another one just because i like the real sounds that soundtraxx has to offer.
rrinker Combine the already excellent mechanism with a Canon can motor with ESU's fabulous motor control - and the sounds are great, if a bit loud at stock settings (but I didn't put the shell on yet). I decided a while ago that I was going to standardize on Loksound for sound, like I have TCS for motor only, so I bought the Loksound programmer and all to be able to modify the sounds. I have pretty much one of everything now, so I've heard them all at this point. Loksound to me has the best choice of sounds and decoder form factors, plus easily modifiable sounds so I can get the proper horn for my prototype witht he proper prime mover. Plus the motor control is simply fantastic. And I like German engineering..but biased because I am of Germanic decent. --Randy
Combine the already excellent mechanism with a Canon can motor with ESU's fabulous motor control - and the sounds are great, if a bit loud at stock settings (but I didn't put the shell on yet). I decided a while ago that I was going to standardize on Loksound for sound, like I have TCS for motor only, so I bought the Loksound programmer and all to be able to modify the sounds. I have pretty much one of everything now, so I've heard them all at this point. Loksound to me has the best choice of sounds and decoder form factors, plus easily modifiable sounds so I can get the proper horn for my prototype witht he proper prime mover. Plus the motor control is simply fantastic. And I like German engineering..but biased because I am of Germanic decent.
--Randy
Randy (forgive the sidebar discussion everyone)
Your statement made me visit ESU's website , I did a search for a Shay sound sample, the Loksound micro 3.5 has a shay, and the sample I heard was great.
I may need to give ESU a try, I don't really care for the sound on the Bachmann Shay's, I find myself muting them more and more.
Anyway, back on topic.
Thanks Randy.
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hobo9941 A couple frequently lose their addresses, and just stop working. Reading back the CV shows it still has it's address. But if I re enter the same address, the loco comes back to life. Some will read back the CVs, and others will not.
This is what we saw with ALL of ours. Addresses were randomly lost or inaccessible without re-programming. You couldn't depend on being able to read back CVs, and CV settings were also randomly lost. When running in an operating session environment, problems like that are completely unacceptable.
Rob Spangler
I have installed over a dozen MRC decoders, new and older ones. I have never fried one. All are still working. You cannot lower the volumes. A couple frequently lose their addresses, and just stop working. Reading back the CV shows it still has it's address. But if I re enter the same address, the loco comes back to life. Some will read back the CVs, and others will not. They were cheap, especially considering they included a speaker. I have not had the problems some of the other posters have had. But I'm not buying any more MRCs. My last decoder purchases were Tsunamis. Some of my earlier problems with the MRCs went away when I purchased a CMX track cleaner car, and were likely due to dirty track.
Well, I have to say I haven't had a reliability issue. But then, all I've done since installing it is run around the layout a few times and attempt to adjust the horns and volume settings to try and get it sounding better. It's been parked since, until I figure out just which loco I'm going to put the Loksound Alco decoder in, that Athearn, or my brass one, or one of the half dozen Atlas ones I have to put togetherm paint, and decal.
Now, the Stewart/Bowser Baldwin with Loksound I just got today..wow. Combine the already excellent mechanism with a Canon can motor with ESU's fabulous motor control - and the sounds are great, if a bit loud at stock settings (but I didn't put the shell on yet). I decided a while ago that I was going to standardize on Loksound for sound, like I have TCS for motor only, so I bought the Loksound programmer and all to be able to modify the sounds. I have pretty much one of everything now, so I've heard them all at this point. Loksound to me has the best choice of sounds and decoder form factors, plus easily modifiable sounds so I can get the proper horn for my prototype witht he proper prime mover. Plus the motor control is simply fantastic. And I like German engineering..but biased because I am of Germanic decent.
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rrinkerNope. MAYBE if they were free.
Maybe not even then. The experience I have dealing with MRC decoders is entirely negative. One guy in my local round-robin group ended up with about half a dozen, both sound and not (either through outright purchase or they came with Athearn locos), and none of us could make them perform satisfactorily. Random loss of all programming, poor motor control, awful sound volume control. At least two of the affected locos were sent back to Athearn for service, and Athearn couldn't get them to work any better. Even the guy with the MRC Prodigy Advance2 system on his home layout couldn't get them so they'd stay programmed.
The MRC decoders got passed around for different people to try in various locos, and all were eventually discarded. The same locomotives subsequently received replacements from NCE, Digitrax or Soundtraxx, and none of us had a single issue with any of them.
Given such experiences, I'd be wary of any decoder MRC sells. They would have to drastically improve their product, and establish a solid track record, for me to consider one.
Trying to be fair to MRC but DCC is a fairly small part of the whole company. DCC came into the company not too long ago. Look up the company history. They are not a DCC company, specifically and never will be.
Rich
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tstage The short answer: No. The longer answer: Nopity Nope. You'll be bashing more than the install if you go with the MRC decoder. My advice is to stick with a proven sound decoder like QSI, Loksound, or Soundtraxx. You won't be sorry. Tom
The short answer: No. The longer answer: Nopity Nope. You'll be bashing more than the install if you go with the MRC decoder. My advice is to stick with a proven sound decoder like QSI, Loksound, or Soundtraxx. You won't be sorry.
Tom
Thanks, Gentlemen.
Yes. those are my favourites to install. As with most....you get what you pay for. Still I would like to see a little more variety/competition in the sound decoder market to bring some prices down. Just not enough sales volume, I guess.
Nope. MAYBE if they were free. I got one at less than half the original price for an AThearn RS3. Since I'm not comfortably saying a product is no good if I haven't actually used it. Well, it IS no good. Motor control is iffy, and the sounds are absolutely horrid. Plus, they come with a dozen or so horn sounds, selectable by a CV. Great. What they don;t come with is a list of which horn it is for each CV value. Now, they claim to have recorded all the sounds from real locos. So, they must know which horn is which in the decoder sound set....
I emailed tech support. The response: "We don't have a record of that"
If you MUST have cheap sound, the Digitrax ones are better than MRC in every way. And some of the dedicated users have worked some real magic with sound sets of far better quality than the ones Digitrax supplies.
Otherwise - skip the cheapies and get one of the good ones - Loksound, QSI, or Soundtraxx.
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I would stick with the newest versions. Many, not too older, versions could be the pits. I suggest you do a search of the DCC forum for mrc decoders. Up to the latest version, MRC decoders have been a crap shoot. Happened to me, also. I switched to SoundTraxx, primarily, then some LokSound and QSI.
Some users who are really good with DCC have had some success with MRC decoders.
Loco specific in their case means what prototype engine they represent. Go to MRC's web site and down load the manual for this decoder. The newer decoders should be better than the older ones. One problem with the older ones was you have to hit F8 tree time to turn off the sound.This also turned off the decoder so you could not run the loco with the sound off. Also compare the list of CV's for this decoder against one from Soundtraxx. At least the new MRC's have lighting effects now. If you can afford it try one out. The style of board looks like it's made for Atlass/Kato where there is a tab on each end of the motor and slots on the decoder that fit onto these tabs. Joe