I have had some forums about DCC, and locomotives, but there is still a number of questions. First being that since I’m interested in sound locomotives should i buy Athearn or Atlas?
Second being what is better quality? i heard things such as the decoders in the athearn sound unit to be horrible.
third If this is ture, should that make me apprehensive about buying an athearn locomotive? Atlas is supposed to be one of the best locomotive manufacters in Model railroading
Most Atlas HO loco’s aren’t available with sound units so thats largely a moot point. Many Athearn Genesis loco’s (especially F units) are available with sound but the consensus is the sound units are not very good quality. I’ve gotten 10 Genesis F’s and all without sound because of the universal bad feedback about the MRC sound units in them. Just going on reputation alone, any Atlas loco with sound would probably be quite good. But I don’t think there are hardly any offered with sound.
As far as sound any quality brand of locomotive can be equipped with sound and DCC.Soundtraxx offers plug & play DCC/Sound decoders.
As far as the Athearn/MRC sound decoder problem go the better route and buy the DCC ready unit and add the sound system of your choice or simply replace the MRC decoder.
IF SOUND IS #1 on your list, you shouldn’t buy anything without hearing it - first.
If DC, the (opinion) best choice is QSI - whoever is using it.
In DCC, the ‘best’ is SOUNDTRAXX ‘Tsunami’ - strictly an aftermarket product.
“Quality” is only a 7 letter word - and a highly subjective term, at best.
To date: QSI has spent more time designing individual speaker baffles (separating back & front waves) so gets my vote; also it works on both DC & DCC. Everything else is ‘catch up’.
