Best bang for your buck DCC decoders and speakers?

[cudaken]

 OK, I am hooked on DCC and sound. I have a few older Atheran Blue Boxes I want to make the jump with. Mainly a Santa Fe FP-45 and a SDP-40 so I bought a couple of these's.

 

 They are from the new Athearn Dash 9 engines. Not worried about the hacking and wacking to get them to work. Drive shafts I may need some help with but that is down the road.

 I all so bought a set of A&B PK 1000's that are DCC ready and both powered. And my PK Erie Bulit A&B all so both power and PK 2's E-6's A & B & A all so all powered.

 I know I am going to need to cut out some metal to fit in the speaker and bulid a sound box.

 What is the best sound quality for the buck with a small speaker. What $ range ranking as well?

 I would all so like random sounds while on the move. This is a driffret question as well. I have 4 BLI Steamers and like the radom sound when sitting still. Is there a decoder I can get that will make radom sounds on the move, same for the other Engines that are going DCC listed above?

           Thanks for the up coming answer's, part numbers links that are coming.

 

                                 Cuda Ken

[rrinker]

 FOr a non-sound decoder, the best deal is the NCE D13SRJ which incidently will plug right into those Athearn circuit boards. Empire Northern sells them in a 10 pack for $119.95.

 FOr sound, it's never cheap. Still waiting to see the new SOundtraxx DSD's, they are supposed to have a better motor drive than the old ones. The old ones will buzz an Athearn motor in an annoying way, on better quality motors it might be ok - those OLD DSD decoders do not have a high frequency silent drive. The NEW ones are supposed to. The Digitrax ones are inexpensive AND you can load your own sounds. The BEST is probably the Loksound, they have incredible motor drive and a wide array of sounds, and you can also change the sound in those yourself (each with the appropriate programming hardware). But they aren't cheap.

 They all do random sounds when running, even your BLIs. The problem is you probably can't heard those sounds over the much louder steam chuffs - which is entirely realistic, with a steam locomotive pounding down the main you'd never hear the air pump come on over the exhaust sounds. When it's just sitting there - then you hear thinks like the air pump kick on. But it actually does make the sounds while in motion - if you turn the exhaust volume way down you'll hear it. Injectors too. They are not loud enough to be heard over the roar of a loco at speed, but when sanding still it's quite obvious.

 

                                           --Randy
 

[Texas Zepher]

What is the best sound quality for the buck with a small speaker. What $ range ranking as well?

Why the requirement that it come with a speaker, that eliminates 75% of the possible units.  Also there are much better speakers available than the ones that come attached to the sound units.    Personally, for quality of sound vs price I like the Soundtraxx DSX decoders.   The problem with these is that they don't have the DCC motor controls built in so one has to have a normal DCC decoder and the DSX decoder.

The problem with the Lok-Sound decoders isn't just the price, but also the fact that they used and require speakers with high ohm ratings.   This virtually locks one into their brand of speakers.

PK 2's E-6's A & B & A all so all powered

You know, they make those with the sound already installed.

[Tilden]

Ken,

The Soundtrax speakers are pretty good, if you can use an 8 ohm speaker.  They run from about 8 to 15 bucks depending on shape and size.  However, the impedance of the speaker must match the ouput requirements of the sound decoder.  This varies with some decoders.

I saw those conversion kits somewhere.  They look pretty handy and should provide near Genisis running characteristics.  Let us know how conversions run.

Tilden