I saw a video of their new big boy today and although I was very impressed with the looks of it, the general die cast heft, good lighting, smooth running, etc.. I was left a little perplexed by the decision of MTH to use the same whistle in their big boy as they used in their N&W class J. And they also used the class J's whistle on the Challenger.
MTH has always been known for revolutionizing smoke systems in the O gauge world, no doubt about that, but even in hi-railing, I have never been interested in their products due to DCS of course, and more importantly their lack of quality sound. When it comes to scale pieces, Lionel wins hands down due to Railsounds technology. In O gauge, a lot of MTH premier proto 2 sound equipped engines, particularly the pennsy ones, nearly all came with the same unprototypical shrill, yet strikingly bland whistle. And even the other road names just lacked the realisitc bass sounds that Lionel had.
In HO, I would have expected better variety, especially with the release of Proto Sound 3. The sound quality is excellent for a smaller scale at least, but it seems the whistles are becoming rather generic over time. At first their earlier releases were promising, the sounds on the Empire State Express and Dreyfuss Hudson were very unique and of the best quality. But now, why on earth would they put the whistle of an east coast engine into the big boy? And this may be becoming a pattern.
Any ideas behind why they would make this kind of decision?