Bachmann has been teasing some of us with their DCC Sound on Board ads in MR, however my LHS has no info, nor did I find any info on the Bachmann site. I’m looking forward to introducing sound into my Spectrum steam fleet. What’s the story on new releases?
I have a Three-truck Shay, a 2-10-2 Santa Fe, three 2-8-0 Consolidations and four 2-10-0 Russian Decapods and would like to retrofit some with sound. Recommendations/comments? The Grizzly Northern “Doodle Bear” (Doodle Bug) already produces a satisfying motor-like sound, without a sound decoder-alas no horn.
Bachmann has contracted with SoundTraxx and is putting Tsunami sound decoders into their engines, but it is probably custom-made and not the same as a consumer-installed Tsunami.
For your steam engines with a tender, there are several brands of sound decoders available, such as LokSound and Tsunami. An MRC would also fit, but I would never use one of them after the experience I have had with some of their other decoders.
The Bachmann Spectrum HO scale Shay requires a special-made SoundTraxx decoder, and you’ll have to contact a DCC dealer such as Tony’s Train Exchange, Loy’s Toys, or Litchfield Station about the availability of one of them.
MRC makes a sound decoder that will fit into the Con-Cor HO scale Galloping Goose, but I know of no sound system made specifically for a Doodlebug. The Galloping Goose motor sound would not even be close to a Doodlebug’s, and neither would the horn.
If I’m not mistaken, when Bachmann uses the term “on Board”, they are talking about factory installed DCC boards in their new locomotives, so they may not necessarily have separate DCC sound decoders available right away. Bachmann’s E-Z command control DCC system only has functions F0-F8 available, with 1 or 2 of those functions for lighting. That would leave 6-7 functions available for sound. How many sounds or functions are typically available in a retrofit sound decoder?
The Bachmann Sound on Board have factory installed Soundtrax Tsunami decoders and will operate on DC or DCC. An instructional DVD is included with the locomotives. They are slowly becoming available from Bachmann
I recently purchased a Spectrum HO 4-4-0 with DCC but I was disappointed because it had no sound so I converted it with a DCC/sound SoundTraxx DSD-100LC steam generic decoder& one inch speaker. The tender frame had holes in it for a speaker. The Bach Man in his forums would not answer my query about Bachmann future sound plans so I did it on my own. I even called Bachmann and they had no clue. Running the Bachmann with a Roundhouse 4-4-0 that has DCC & sound is more to my liking. Yes, the Roundouse does not have as good detail but I really enjoy sound. I have been able to somewhat fine tune the Roundhouse but I might have to put a resistor in series with the speaker lead and decoder to lower the sound level.
I use the NCE Power Cab system The club I belong to uses the NCE Power Pro system.
To clarify my latest posting above, I’m mainly interested in the sound performance of the newly released Spectrum 2-8-0, 2-10-0 and 2-10-2’s with factory-installed sound systems, presumably Tsunami), although I may consider retrofitting some of the Grizzly Northern’s current fleet.
In a separate thread hdtvnut gave a short review of a newly purchased Russian Decapod equipped with Tsunami sound, but mainly focussed on mechanical defects. I’m still waiting to hear what folks think of the quality of each of the sounds available in a factory-installed Tsunami-equipped 2-8-0 in particular. Does anyone have one yet who can comment??