oh good they got it @ 8 ohms and a betar fitting speaker ...HEY wonder if there taking trade -ins ? I have a new in the pac sdh164...Jw
Info now posted on the Digitrax site. $75 MSRP, so $60-$65 street or so. The improvements claimed are better LED lighting (badly needed because until now Digitrax decoders worked poorly with LEDs), ehancned pulse control for lighting effects (maybe like TCS where there are all sorts of adjustments for the light outputs - you need to download the TCS lighting manual, none of that is covered on the basic sheet that comes with them. There is an amazing array of configuration options), and improved BEMF - also badly needed since Digitrax motor control is only so-so at best, and that's the 16x seriers - the 12x series do not have BEMF at all.
http://www.digitrax.com/products/sound-decoders/sdxh166d/
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
more decent decoder options should keep price increases at bay but I would doubt they would drop prices..but compared to the rest of hobby ,decoders have stayed low or dropped in some cases ... I would have know problem trying there newest offering IF " price is right "...Jerry
Agreed!!
3? Loksound 3.5 has 16 bit sound and is user programmable, and my PCM T1 is about 8 years old now.
Of course, that didn't stop Soundtraxx from releasing the Tsunami even though after all the developmental delays it was already well behind the feature curve.
Haven;t seen pricing yet, be interesting to see where they price it. Too close to Loksound and they might as well just give up. At an MRC price, it's a WAY better decoder than anything MRC put out. Also be interesting to see if the programming is still as crazy complicated as the older ones (unless you want to just swap sounds and not alter the 'script' part, you have to pretty much directly program the microcontroller - Fred Miller's tools make it somewhat easier but still more complicated than doing Loksound.)
The way I see it, it answers what people were complainign about. Why not 16 bit sound? OK, got it. Why can;t the BEMF work so when I blow the whistle, my train doesn;t slow down? OK, fixed that.
Oh, and it support an optional keep alive device - so now Digitrax is joining that arena as well. I'm guessing there will be a whole bunch of 6 series motor decoders coming soon as well - they upgraded from the 163 series to 165 to add support for the Soundbug, now they will have the 166 series which I'm guessing will support the keep alive module.
Mark, you brought up a good point about different sounds for the same engine. I have several Bachmann sound equipped steam locos and two or three have the same whistle sound and you can't tell one from the other when running on the layout. I know I can change the whistle on one of them but don't really like the optional one? Oh well.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Competition is always a good thing - it makes everyone work just a bit harder to be better.
Provided the sound decoders are of decent quality, it also helps to mix them up a bit in your roster. Everyones recordings are going to be a bit different, so it gives you some sound variety even if your entire roster is all EMD 567's. They may all be the same engine, but they all don't sound exactly the same.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
I would love to see Digitrax come out with a line of better sound decoders. I only have used one of the earlier ones and wasn't very happy. In fact it stopped working and I sent it back for repairs ($17 plus shipping) and it also stopped working so it occupies a spot in my scrap decoder drawer.
It's about time!! I still have some of their old sound decoders and can't trade them away for anything. Was hoping for a 32 bit and/or stereo for the next generation of sound decoders. Kind of like QSI. I generally use 2 speakers with at least 1 being HB for my installs. My big boys, challengers, northern all have 2 HB speakers with one in the tender and one in the smoke box so stereo separation might actually work in those?
I wonder if this will give Loksound some competition on the user loadable files,etc?
Richard
I noticed that a few days ago. John McMasters is doing a lot of sound schemes for them. Hopefully these will be decent decoders at a good price. Joe
Digitrax has announced a new sound decoder, SDHX166D, which now has 16 bit sound and per people who have been testign them, the BEMF now works, no more slowdowns when you blow the horn.
Still user-loadable, a bunch of sound projects have already been redone with 16 bit sound to take advantage of the new capabilities.
More choice, always good.