I see that the GP38-2 and GP39-2 come with QSI Sound. I know their Master Gold Series locomotives use ESU Loksound.
Is there any information on the new QSI Trainman’s? Since Trainman is more of the budget series, is the QSI sort of a scaled back version…like Bachmann does with Soundtraxx SoundValue? Or is it the full Titan was in the Gold Series?
Seeing them come with QSI was sort of a suprise, since I thought Atlas moved on to ESU.
Doughless,
I believe my Atlas HH660 “gold” switcher from a few years back came with a QSI Titan sound decoder. I don’t know if that’s the one they are using in the Trainmans but the sound is very good and it has great motor control. IIRC, it will do 0.5sMPH on speed step 001.
Tom
Thanks Tom. I have some as well and like them.
But I was wondering about this version in the Trainman. Every recent release of an Atlas OnBoard sound locomotive has come with ESU Loksound…and Atlas announced years ago that they were moving away from QSI. So it made me wonder if these locomotives come with something new from QSI, possibly seeing more in the future, or if they are the Titan from a few years ago being put into their budget line.
I’ll be curious to find out, as well. What’s the price difference between a sound and non-sound Trainman locomotive? If it’s $100 then it’s probably a better quality decoder; $50-$60, a budget version.
Tom
Well the Atlas website says it’s QSI Quantum System, no indication it’s a lesser version. The cost difference (sound vs. non-sound) is $100.
http://shop.atlasrr.com/p-41714-ho-trainman-gp38-2-soo-line-4402-gold.aspx
I guess it comes down to figuring out the marketing names. Is Quantum just the generic name for QSI products? Or did QSI replace Quantum technology with Titan technology, meaning these GPs have older technology?
Perhaps an e-mail to QSI would help answer the query?
Tom
I wonder who one would email. There is QSIndustries, and there is QSI Solutions. Each has its own website. The QSI Solutions website says they do not supply decoders to OEMs and refers you to the QSIndustries site. But the QSIndustries website doesn’t contain much information.
QSIndustries: http://www.qsindustries.com/contact.html
QSI Solutions ; http://www.qsisolutions.com/#!qsi-oem-boards/c1zln
Then maybe contacting Atlas directly would yield a satisfactory answer.
Looking at the QSI Solutions website makes me wonder if I’d really want to have a loco with one of their decoders in it. Normally I can figure out which manual covers which product, but there is a lot of information there that says that some of the Titan decoders distributed by the previous owners “are no longer up to date with the CVs programmed into the decoders by default”, whatever that might mean. You can read about that here if you are interested: http://www.qsisolutions.com/#!titan-ho-documents/c339
Another place reads:
As mentioned earlier, maxman, the sound and motor control of the Titan decoder in my Atlas HH660 is excellent.
Tom
The first thing I thought of is that I wondered which QSI decoders are being used in the Trainman loco’s. Atlas used QSI in my GP40-2 sold produced about 6 years ago, also used in Walthers Proto 2000 F7’s. Sound afficianado’s were universally unimpressed with those QSI and rated them poorly. If Atlas is using those older QSI to keep costs down, that would make sense but also means low quality sound. OTOH, if QSI is offering a decoder with revised sound sets, it may be alright.
I certainly didn’t start the thread to get into a sound decoder opinion war…I was just curious about what type of QSI decoder was in the Trainman’s…if it was a scaled back version of a QSI ala Bachmann’s Soundvalue Tsunami.
I own several OEM sound equipped locomotives from QSI, Tsunami, and Loksound and I have no problem with any of the QSI locomotives compared to the others…and in many ways prefer them over the others.
I can always contact Atlas directly…I was just wondering if anyone has heard what is in these specific locomotives and hopefully we can put some information on the public forum for others to read…since there is no public information that I or anybody else can find.
I would assume these locos are indeed equipped with the Titan, since I doubt Atlas would install other sound decoders that have been discontinued. Now the question for me is, are they standard full featured Titans or a scaled back version that may be newly offered by QSI?
I’m afraid it comes with the territory. Certain topics are nearly always going to include this kind of discussion so when starting at topic, brace yourself. That is the pattern in these forums.
I am curious too, although I am not currently in the market for any Trainman loco’s, I am always interested in learning about the sound decoders and finding out how they sound.
I have to say in recent months when I had heard a particularly good sounding decoder that stands out, every time the answer is Loksound. Many have commented that the horns on Tsunami sound weak, I’m going to have to agree with that too. Right now the only loco’s I own that I have run and listened to the sound are my Atlas GP40-2’s with QSI - they are “ok” but not impressive.
I think I was misunderstood. I didn’t mean to start a “mine is better than yours” discussion. My comment was only meant to relate to the confusion I found on the website when trying to look at the manuals for the different items, and my personal concern that they had somehow changed what the CV values were for what I believe to be different revisions of the same item. In my mind it makes it difficult to troubleshoot problems.
And my intention was not to imply that, maxman. I understood what you were saying and totally agree with your concerns. All I was saying was that, if they were using the “older” Titan decoders, the sound and motor control - to me - were excellent.
Tom
And it is was not my intention to imply that it was your intention to imply that it was my intention…ummm, wait, I’m confused now. [*-)]
Actually, I was sort of responding to the comments that a flame war was potentially being started, which was not my intention.
Kind of interesting move, since part of the reason for switching to Loksound is that they are less expensive than the equivalent QSI decoder. I think QSI lost every single one of their OEM contracts, with BLI developing their own and others switching to Tsunami (Walthers) or Loksound. Haven’t heard (no pun intended) much from QSI the past couple of years. Since the Trainman line is Atlas’ lower cost line, it seems odd they’d use a more expensive decoder - unless they cut some sort of very favorable deal with QSI.
I still have my Atlas Trainmaster Gold Series with QSI, works just fine. Never had any problems with it, The only non-Loksound sound decoder I have any more.
–Randy
And it had nothing to do with the general consensus that the QSI motor sounds were panned by users and as a sound solution as very medirocre? Cost certainly is an important part of the equation but customer satisfaction is bigger IMO. Athearn dropped the inferior MRC decoders for that reason as I understand it. I see Athearns newest announced GP38-2’s are still listed with Tsunami - I wonder when they will switch to Loksound for their diesels? I am not a fine connoisseir of diesels sound but I can really hear the difference between Tsunami and Loksound diesel motor sounds.
So far my Atlas GP40-2 with QSI works fine too, but I agree with the consensus, it’s not very impressive. I still don’t have many sound equipped diesels but if I have a choice, it’s going to be Loksound right now.
I’m guessing Atlas must have cut a deal with QSI for favorable prices to get sound into their Trainman diesels. I just hope they are a newer generation than whats in my GP40-2. If QSI is pla