Don,
All very true BUT, headphones work because of the small air volume between the driver and our ear drum, so it does not take a very "loud" sound to be perceived as loud. I did point this out in my orgian comments about this.
In a room, or even in an automobile, the perceived volume is so low as to not even be heard by most people or the excursion becomes excessive which introduces distortion. Distortion is allready one of the factors I find unacceptable with these sound systems.
The folded horn in the hi-cube might get close, but I model 1954. Again, I too am a speaker designer, I know all this, I also know what sounds accurate and what does not.
I believe many like onboard sound just because it is "neat", and that's OK. For many I believe ANY noise remotely close triggers sound memories in their brains, and that is fun for them. At one point I considered using sound just for bells and whistles (no chug, or diesel prime movers), since high freq. are obviously much better/easier with this size speaker. But in the end the result was deemed not worth the time, given a number of other modeling goals higher on the list.
Sheldon
TZ:
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20090411/BUSINESS/904110364
FYI
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I returned to the HO scale after being out for a number of years. I had little investment in locomotives and was able to get them converted to DCC. So for me it was a no brainer. I now have DCC with sound in all of my locos and really enjoy running them.
The pleasure of having 2 or 3 engines on the same refueling track is very, very cool.
Bob
Photobucket Albums:NPBL - 2008 The BeginningNPBL - 2009 Phase INPBL - 2010 Downtown