I am considering going with DCC. I have found some Soundtraxx decoders that will fit my AMD 103s. I have two of these locos. I was wondering if only one sound decoder will work for this or two. The locos will always be consisted together.
Thanks.
Will
It all depends on what you want. If you will always consist the engines, and you don't mind running wires between them, you can get by with a single decoder. Of course, that will mean that you only have the sound of one engine, not two.
You would need to make sure the decoder can handle two engines. In general, the power requirements of newer engines are pretty minimal, and decoders are hefty enough to do this. With older engines, this is more of a problem.
All engines don't run the same. One of the advantages to DCC consisting is that you can "tune" each engine so it will run about the same as all the others. With a single decoder, you lose that ability. But, if the engines are enough alike, again, you can get away with it.
I'd advise getting one sound decoder and one non-sound decoder. The non-sound unit could be upgraded later, if you want, and the decoder can be "recycled" into another engine.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.