Sound - how has it changed your MR experience?

[MisterBeasley]

OK, late Saturday night philosophy...

I was at my LHS today, and we were talking about how sound had changed the experience for us.  Both Gerry at Maine Trains an myself are avid sound fans.  From the moment I put my first sound engine, a P2K 0-6-0, on the tracks, I was hooked.  My non-sound-equipped engines don't get around much anymore.

Being a sentimental sort, I "feel bad" for my other engines, and I've already retrofitted an Alco RS-3 with sound.  Next, I'll probably take on the P2K Geep twins.  These are perfectly good, DCC-equipped engines, but they are just waa-aay to quiet for my tastes.  Yeah, my spare parts box already has one perfectly good, but silent, decoder in it.

The first time I hooked up my DCC system, I was 12 years old again, thrilling to that child-like excitement of running trains.  (I was 58 at the time.)  When I toot the whistle or ring the bell now, I still get that old jolt that takes me back to my Lionel days.

How do you feel about sound on your layout?

[tstage]

Yea, the recent advent of sound into individual locomotives is pretty neat technology. But DCC - by far - is waaaaaay better in my book.  I probably only run sound about 30% of the time I'm operating on my layout. 

To me, DCC is like cake and sound is like icing.  Eating cake without icing is still very delicious.  But icing by itself?  It's only tasty in smaller doses.

Tom

[Ted Marshall]

Who wants my Athearn RTR's?

No sound, nor potential for sound in the future.

I'll probably never run them again except as helpers in a consist if I can figure how to speed match them with my QSI BLI's.

 

[zxb1]

I've got over thirty diesel engines, & only three have sound. I'll never buy another silent engine again, I PROMISE ! Yes it is easy to get hooked on sound and it really brings your railroad to life. I cannot run any trains unless I have sound, It just makes everything so real. Well time to go listen to 8-40c start up.

 

[R. T. POTEET]

I'm still living in a B(efore) S(ound) world and probably will into the indefinite future; to be honest with you I am developing an interest in trying DCC and will probably install it on my new/next layout but at this particular moment in time I really have absolutely no interest in sound whatsoever.

[BLinny7]

I am still in the Planning stages of my first layout in over 30 years but I have already picked up over 9 Broadway Limited Locos and just got 2 Blue Line SD40-2's Sound is great it adds a whole new dimension to Model Railroading

[selector]

I can remember when I purchased my first major electronic device...a Sanyo 21" colour TV.  WOW!  Previously, it was black and white.

I don't watch any TV in black and white these days.  Come to think of it, I hardly watch any TV at all.  I prefer to run my toy trains and to hear the sounds they make.

Sometime soon, I will turn off all my sound and run engines around the layout.  I expect it will be weird.

[aloco]

It hasn't done a thing for me.   Small speakers = small sound.   The only way I'd ever get sound for my layout is to construct an outboard sound system with a subwoofer.   It's gotta have the rumble if it's gonna sound like a train!

[stokesda]

My first experience with sound was a Soundtraxx LC decoder I installed in a Spectrum heavy 4-8-2. It was really cool to have sound in the loco, but as it was the inexpensive LC decoder, it was kind of ho-hum on the sound quality.

Then I got my first Tsunami in the form of the factory-installed sound in a new Spectrum Consolidation from Micro-Mark. Let me just say, WOW! I was really impressed and now I want to swap out my LC in the 4-8-2 with a Tsunami!

I would like to install sound in some of my diesels, as well. However, I can't see installing sound in every single locomotive I own. For one, it's expensive, and for another, I just don't think I need to have sound in everything. I'm not even sure how I would install it in some of my locos.

[hminky]

I thought sound was great even if it was one of those IHC steam chuff cars back in the '80's. I had Onboard analog sound back in 1985 and felt that a railroad without sound was just a silent movie. Anybody watch silent moview anymore.

DCC with the Soundtraxx Tsunami are the greatest thing for model steam ever.

 Harold

[jon grant]

I'm hooked on sound, and got rid of anything in the loco fleet that I didn't think would get soundchipped one day.

steam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MO-GhvtK1M

 

diesel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wunjQZFpkrg

 

Jon

[SSW9389]

Aloco I was trying to think of a way to say the same thing you have said already. Tiny little speakers in an HO locomotive do not sound like the real thing to me. That said I find the sound equipped locomotives to be an expensive diversion and will not buy them. Real train sound can be near duplicated with the outboard sound system. Thanks Aloco you said it first.

Ed

 

It hasn't done a thing for me.   Small speakers = small sound.   The only way I'd ever get sound for my layout is to construct an outboard sound system with a subwoofer.   It's gotta have the rumble if it's gonna sound like a train!

[Fergmiester]

How has it changed my MR experience?

Made it more expensive! If it doesn't have sound and if it's worthy of sound it will get sound!

I love it and will continue to outfit locos worthy of it. However it also means 1/2 the fleet is bound for the scrap heap (LHS used equipment shelf).

Fergie

[3railguy]

I do not have any HO engines with digital sound. Not to be sarcastic but Athearn blue box engines make a natural sound with a hint of EMD. I do have a few O gauge engines with digital sounds. I like them but they get old after about 20 minutes and I shut them off.

Clapped out Alco sounds are what I want. That and fan driven smoke unit that spews gobs of smoke while laboring.

[fifedog]

MTH Proto 2.0 literally threw me to the DARK SIDE.

[faraway]

I've got my first sound engine (Bowser Ligfht Mikado) this week.

It was great fun for the first two minutes, nice to hear for the next three minutes. After that it was just noise in my hobby room I don't like at all.

Beside the fact that the noise/sound was far from perfection it's the noise itself I don't like. This years I do my very best to get silent running engines with high quality motors, well running transmission etc. This sound is an awfull step backwards.

I returned the engine and got a full refund.

 

There is another Spectrum Consolidatioon on order. As it has a price as a no sound engine I'll replace the sound decoder with a high quality DCC decoder and enjoy the little beast in my quiet room:-) 

 

ps. Diesel sound is worse as all the very low frequencies are missing from the small speakers. You have to fee a diesel engine in your chest if it's close to you. 

[simon1966]

Virtually everything I run has sound in it.  Which means that there are quite a few locos that just don't get run anymore sitting in their boxes.

[lvanhen]

In the hobby 40+ years - have 100+ locos - most of them Athern BB - got my first DCC/sound 2+ years ago - bought 4 more sound/DCC since then.  Bought 1 DC & 1 DCC/no sound (grandson's choice - mostly because of color!) hate those darned silent things!!  Sending the DC to Tony's for DCC/sound install!!  Like one of the previous posts said, Takes me back to 12 years old (now 64)!!!  Sound & DCC for the rest of time!! 

[tatans]

Nothing's changed---no sound--- a great many of us out there believe this hobby is pretty well a visual experience as well as a creative hands on hobby, can it be said along with sound, what else is missing from the layout, bird songs, aircraft, motorcycles, smells, wind, rain, snow, cloud shadows, various degrees of light, there must be a thousand other "things" that are missing from our layouts, are they really necessary or important,  just where will it end??? you know right now that there is something brand new coming up and you know you will have it even if you don't know what it is now,  if choo-choo sounds add to your enjoyment, have fun, that's what this hobby is.

[CSX_road_slug]

I like sound alot, I currently have 4 sound-equipped locos.  But I'm simply too broke these days to retrofit my entire fleet with sound decoders & speakers.  Geez, I'm struggling just to put plain-jane decoders into all my engines!  Hopefully people will still be willing to visit my mostly-silent layout..?

[BRAKIE]

I have a love/hate relationship with sound.I like sound for 1 1/2-2 hours then after that it gets on my nerves especially for long periods of time-say like 6 hours straight..

[jesrr]

I have four engines equipped with qsi sound and 2 athearn rtr's that will be converted to sound shortly. i really enjoy the new technology.

[selector]

I have been thinking about the experience reported by those who have tried sound and who then reject it.  Some of their negative reaction must be attributable to the quality of sound, and some of it must be attributable to the quantity of sound.  As has been pointed out over many threads the past two years, the sound quality is not that great....period.  If you are a real rail nut and spend several Sundays each year near live engines, the toys just don't cut it.  That's a real D'uh.

So, just as with the entire modeling experience, those who will themselve to enjoy the sound must suspend disbelief.  They're toys, folks.  Listening to a quality CD, I'm sorry to have to tell you, is not the same as being seated in row 12 at the Orpheum and listening to Piano Concerto #5 of Beethoven.  It is a good approximation, and that is all we'll ever get, or hope to get if our understanding of physics stands the test.

In the meantime, we need to educate ourselves a bit more about things DCC.  Maybe some of us should be reading David Bedard's posts with a bit more introspection and critical thinking to learn what DCC has to offer, particularly as it applies to sound decoders. 

Every one of us who likes sound-equipped trains has learned to tailor their experience by altering several CVs.  Is this also true of those who have rejected the technology?  Did they learn to set their mute levels to a reasonable fraction of the normal volume, for example, as you can on the QSI decoders?  I routinely set mine for about 25% volume which only allows the locos to impart a faint ambient yard sound.  Only the ones actually working get to run at my standard full volume setting of about 60%...which is plenty loud in a small space.  If the steam hiss on your Tsunami (F4) is too loud, turn it down.  Pick up the paddle and set the CV to a lower value.  Did you know you can cut off the blower hiss on QSI decoders by pressing F4?  Ever tried it?   Just that single action will quiet things down remarkably on your layout if you find your bloodpressure rising over 10 minutes. 

Believe me, I'll nod enthusiastically with those who complain of noisy layouts.  Except, I don't have one.   I made it that way, but won't have a single loco that is not sound-equipped.  You might as well revert, to me, to pizza cutter wheels and steamers with only the side rods...no valve gear.

Signed,

A convert to sound

[modelalaska]

Well even though I only had sound for at 15 minutes in my Kato N scale SD70Mac (MRC decoder) I really enjoyed it. Not so much the rumbling of the engine sound but for the bell and horn and other background sounds.
Then the decoder freaked out and I had to send it back to MRC for repair.
Yes the volume was low but then my loco is small and I don't expect a lot out of a 13mm speaker.
Not sure how many locos I will convert... a lot depends on how MRC follows through and how durable the decoder is when I get it back.

Peter

[steamage]

I've been making vocal steam and diesel sounds for years. No electronics needed!

[reklein]

I have mixed emotions about sound. I have one steam and one deisel with the apropriate sound in each and I like it for short term only. I like sound better at the club which is a large room and the sound seems to get soaked up by the size of the room. The guys at the club have a gas electris car with sound that they think is wonderful but just sounds like static going around to me. But, Ive heard some really good sound at the LHS Lok Sound I think that sounded really good. Bottom line? I still have mixed feelings.

[riogrande5761]

I own about 90 HO diesels consisting of Athearn BB, RTR, Geneisis, KATO, P2K, Stewart and Atlas.  None of them have sound as of yet.  I have seen it demonstrated and my opinion is much like others above, it is a cool novelty, but I think it would get on my nerves long term.  I may eventually pick up a sound equipped diesel just to show off or have fun with but I prefer silence or some mellow music to listen too.

[PBoilermaker]

Selector makes some very good points about people not taking full advantage of their sound customization settings.  I think more people would have good opinions of sound locomotives if they knew how to set them up.  Many people these days refuse to do anything more difficult than placing the locomotive on the track and running it as-is.  If it isn't perfect OOB, there are many moans and groans.  You can't please everyone.  Then again, unnumbered units were shunned because it was deemed by many to be too difficult or troublesome to apply road number decals.  For all of the complaints out there regarding the "have it now" society we live in, a good look in the mirror by some is probably well past due.

As for the people who bash sound because of the bass issue, honestly think of the bass experienced when watching a train from, say, a few hundred yards.  As you get further from the real locomotive, the sensory onslaught diminishes significantly.  Sitting next to an SD50 starting up a heavy train, you actually feel like your chest is being squeezed.  Watch the same train from a distance and you hear significantly diminished bass.  Consider your typical -scale- distance from an HO or N locomotive with sound on a layout.  I would argue that it isn't far off from being a few hundred (or thousand) yards from the real deal.  Granted, more bass would be nice, but having surround sound, full-room bass is no more "realistic" than the dearth of bass in a standard HO speaker, especially when you consider the scale distances involved.  Current onboard sound does quite well in generating a reasonable approximation when scale is considered.  True, nothing will ever match the real thing, but when you make allowances for scale in -all- other areas except sound, you are doing yourselves a disservice.  

Regardless, it is funny to read the responses of those who adamantly oppose sound based on OOB levels and settings.  Almost across the board, the main complaint is that the sound -volume- gets on one's nerves after a short time, yet there is no mention of volume level modification.  Get into the instructions, modify your CV's and try to set the sound to a prototypical level based on scale distance!  You don't watch TV at full volume, so why would you operate your DCC sound in the same manner?  Try returning a TV to the store based on your displeasure with the OOB volume level and see what kind of response you get from the CS staff. 

Just a few things to ponder.

-Mike 

[jwils1]

HO sound can be wonderful and it can be simply awful!  I got pretty excited about sound at first and then realized how annoying it can be.  The problem was that I was running several at a time.  Then I realized that by running just one at a time it can be really enjoyable.

So, I just run  one with sound at a time and just concentrate on working all of the sound options as needed for each situation.  I also keep the volume level relatively low.

Since good quality sound locos (diesel) are kind of hard to come by I recently thought that I would experiment and just run silently and if that was enjoyable I wouldn't have to  worry about buying sound and could just concentrate on getting locos that I really wanted.  But, I found that I just didn't like silent running and found myself wanting to keep turning the sound back on.

So I'm firmly commited to sound.  When run properly it is simply great.   For now, in order to use my "silent" locos, I have  three sound box cars that I run immediately behind them.  For me that's a good compromise while I wait for the technology, and my skill, to develope to where I can get sound in everything.  

[SpaceMouse]

I was not in the hobby in the no sound era. I have a couple engines without sound and they don't look right on the track because there is no sound of them chugging along.

I think there is a lot of Bah-Humbug when it comes to sound. It is a pain to retrofit sometimes and multiply that times a moderate fleet and the cost and effort it daunting.