Tsunami's installed and working great

[Anonymous]

Just a short note to say the Tsunami has been worth the wait and is a great sounding unit. Two speakers are better than one for sure for this sound unit.

Anyone else out there using the Tsunami???

Let us know your findings on it.

Steam only at this time, but the diesel version should be here in the next few weeks.

[rolleiman]

Which speakers are you using and what did you install them In??

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rolleiman

Which speakers are you using and what did you install them In??

I use two of the eliptical 1.1" x 1.7" with enclosures for each one and they are wired in series. One set is in a Key FEF 3 using the sound cam for activation of chuffing and another one is in a Genesis Challenger.

The sound is great and with 214 CV's, you can get lost for sure.

[cacole]

I put a heavy steam Tsunami into an IHC 2-10-2 and it sounds great. I used a medium oval speaker with enclosure that was recommended by Tony's Train Exchange. The Tsunami has an incredible number of options to choose from for the bell and whistle, and practically every other sound that it can make can be tweaked individually.

In order to do one right, you definitely need to download and print out the Tsunami Technical Reference, a 98 page document, from the SoundTraxx web site. If you don't have this document, you're not going to get the full benefit of all the features available in the Tsunami.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cacole

I put a heavy steam Tsunami into an IHC 2-10-2 and it sounds great. I used a medium oval speaker with enclosure that was recommended by Tony's Train Exchange. The Tsunami has an incredible number of options to choose from for the bell and whistle, and practically every other sound that it can make can be tweaked individually.

In order to do one right, you definitely need to download and print out the Tsunami Technical Reference, a 98 page document, from the SoundTraxx web site. If you don't have this document, you're not going to get the full benefit of all the features available in the Tsunami.

The speaker I referred to is from Tony's Trains. They have some great sounding speakers.
The actual CV, 214 each are great to use and the more you work with them, the better the sound gets.

[hdtvnut]

[:D] Just finished putting a Heavy into a Rivarossi Allegheny, a
far nicer loco than their previous steam. I'm very happy with the
results.

I also used Tony's Trains 1.1 x 1.7" speaker, mounted in the bottom
of the tender.

Does anybody know whether one of the Tsunami whistles is the same or
similar to an Allegheny? I have no soundtrack of one.

My first installation was a Heavy into a Trix Big Boy, which was
easier because the tender had a place to mount a 1.1" round speaker.
I was unable to use the 4018 whistle because the sample has strong
bass which has to be filtered out for the small speaker, and the mids
and highs were at such low level that they could not be boosted to
decent volume. But the #0 1522 whistle is the same without nearly
the bass and much stronger mid volume, so I use it.

The auto exhaust can only give an approximation to the correct chuff
rate. I tried Method 2 in the Steam manual, using a speed table set
up to match the driver rotation to the throttle-controlled chuff at
each of 28 steps. This gives a much more realistic slow-speed chuff,
but I can't hear the chuff rate distinctly above about step 7 or 8,
so I extrapolate for the higher steps.

But changes in load affect the speed at a given throttle, so this
throws the sync off some. I might try a cam like the Grizzly
Mountain just to see if it's worth the trouble.

Havn't gotten into momentum or DDE stuff yet.

Hal

[cacole]

Hal,

Did you try adjusting CV 153, Equalizer Control, to the size speaker you are using? This is something new to SoundTraxx decoders. There are 7 possible values that can be programmed into this CV to adjust the Equalizer to the speaker size.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cacole

Hal,

Did you try adjusting CV 153, Equalizer Control, to the size speaker you are using? This is something new to SoundTraxx decoders. There are 7 possible values that can be programmed into this CV to adjust the Equalizer to the speaker size.

I must have skipped over that one, but I will give it a try.

Thanks

[hdtvnut]

Yes, adjusting CV153 was the first thing I tried.
But it was not enought to allow a 1.1 inch
speaker to handle the 4018 sample, which has a
very throaty sound. Then I worked with the
equalizer for some time to try to get a balance
the spkr could handle, but realized the three
midrange whistle tones were too weak - the
dynamic range of that sample had been determined
completely by the bass components. What was
left after filtering, even with whistle, mid-
range EQ and overall volume CV's maxed to the
point of overloading the speaker, wasn't loud
enough because the EQ doesn't allow enough
control of the bass in this case. And I only
wanted moderate loudness in a smallish room.

I discussed the 4018 whistle with Alan at ST. He
says that it was done this way to try to preserve
the real sound, but agrees it is probably useless
for HO. While this may be fine for Garden gauge
size speakers, it doesn't help most of us.

The 1522 sample has the same three whistles
without all the wind noise, and I get a
satisfactory loudness w/o extreme EQ and boost.

I first ran across this at John's Hobbies a
couple of years ago - they had installed an
earlier ST decoder in a Trix BB (if I remember
correctly) and it sounded pretty anemic. But
neither they nor I understood why at the time.

As people get into trying to process samples
themselves for downloading into decoders such
as the LokSound, they will discover just how
important a carefully tailored frequency range
becomes with these tiny HO speakers. One
thing that BLI and Lifelike do very well is to
put as large and as many speakers as they can
in each type loco. For the best results, we
will have to do the same.

Hal