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HO Sound

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  • Member since
    April 2003
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HO Sound
Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 30, 2005 8:22 PM
Hey all,
Where do you get your sound units? Any suggestions on brand, model, etc?
Thanks in advance
Scott
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
  • 13,757 posts
Posted by cacole on Monday, May 30, 2005 8:34 PM
http://www.litchfieldstation.com
http://www.tonystrains.com

You are basically limited to two brands, SoundTraxx or MRC if you're talking about HO scale after-market sound systems.

For locomotives that have sound decoders already installed, your choices are Broadway Limited, Proto 2000, Atlas, or MRC.

  • Member since
    October 2004
  • From: Colorful Colorado
  • 8,639 posts
Posted by Texas Zepher on Monday, May 30, 2005 8:37 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by trainmaster1989

Where do you get your sound units? Any suggestions on brand, model, etc?


Most recently I purchased a Broadway Limited to rip the sound unit out of, but I am not certain I understand the question.

I have purchased sound units at swap meets, through hobby stores, mail-order, and ebay. The one I mentioned above was mail-order.

Suggesstions on brand is hard not knowing what you want. Do you want prototypically accurate sound, high quality sound, loudness, cheapness, or easy installation? Steam or diesel? Hard core sounds or more novelty light hearted stuff like cows mooing or the conductor saying "Allllll Aboard"?
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 30, 2005 9:32 PM
For diesels, I recommend either the sound P2Ks (I have the RI E6A - superb!) or the Atlas (which are the best on the market). BLI has fallen short on a lot of their diesels to date (although the more recent switcher shows improvement).

For steamers, BLI is good (but expensive !!!).

Buy from Tony's Train Exchange or Modeltrainstuff (M.B. Klein).

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 7:26 AM
I think www.gadgettom.com has sound decoders for sale, too. www.loystoys.com, also.
  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Georgia
  • 486 posts
Posted by soumodeler on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 7:41 AM
Who makes more accurate diesel sounds- Atlas or P2K?

soumodeler
-----------------
The Southern Serves the South!
soumodeler --------------- The Southern Serves the South!
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  • From: Metro East St. Louis
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Posted by simon1966 on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 7:54 AM
QUOTE: Originally posted by soumodeler

Who makes more accurate diesel sounds- Atlas or P2K?

soumodeler
-----------------
The Southern Serves the South!


They both use the QSI sound decoder.

There have been severel threads running recently regarding sound. As of right now the choices are purchasing a sound equipped locomotive (Broadway, Atlas, P2K and Athearn) most of these get their sound decoders from QSI. For aftermarket sound installations, the current choice is Soundtraxx and MRC. However, I would hang on a bit as the market for Sound is about to change. Soundtraxx are in the process of releasing the new Tsunami decoder, QSI are about to release aftermarket decoders, MRC have announced a new better decoder than the current one, and by all accounts Digitrax are about to enter the sound decoder market. I am going to wait for a few months to see what shakes out.

Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum

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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, June 5, 2005 4:45 PM
Thanks for the links and ideas guys,
Sorry i haven't been on lately
Thanks again
Scott

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