Now that you have convinced me to buy a couple of soundtraxx tsunami decoders instead of MRC I need some speakers. I see they have their run of the mill 1 inch speaker that goes with their speaker baffle. They also have their MEGA Bass 27mm speaker… The standard speaker is practically flat. The mega base is about .5 inches high. It doesn’t sound like a lot but when i see how much room I have it might be too big. Here is my delema - I have read that all of these speakers need baffles - this speaker is pretty… large - would it still need baffle and if so can it just ecompase the speaker itself or does it need to be move volumous than the speaker. For example, if you use their standard 1 inch speaker and baffle, there is quite a bit of room in their for resenance. If you were to use this speaker and a their baffle, the baffle would basically just cover the whole speaker. Would this be ok? I am referring to part numbers 810054 and 810130. This would be going in a Genesis F3 A-B-A set.
I assume by baffle you mean an enclosure? Any speaker is much improved when mounted in an enclosure. The one’s Soundtraxx makes work well. I used them in most of my installs. If you have enough space to stack them to gain more volume, that’s good. Or you can build your own, what’s essential is no leaks, it needs to be sealed.
Yes, you’ll be much happier with the sound if you use an enclosure or baffle.
It’s been awhile since I was to that part of their website. They differentiate I think because a baffle is just part of enclosure. Usually in this case, there’s a tender shell or other space that can be easily closed up to act as an enclosure. The part that does just that is a baffle, but it can also be part of a larger enclosure.
Be sure to order the correct size gasket with it, makes things much easier and neater.
Radio Shack has the packing material that helps the sound more. Usually, you can’t get much in with our applications, so I don’t bother, but just thought I’d mention it as another option.
I make my enclosures so that I can use the biggest Mega Bass speaker available, some over 1". I the sides of the diesel many times putting them in the radiators(flared for example) or tanks. I like thick cardstock since there is less resonance. I also use adhesive putty to dampen bad vibrations.
LOL on HO not sounding like real thing. NOBODY, NO downsized scale can do that. When you stand by a SD70 for example, your body feels the vibration from the ground and air a lot of times. That’s why some people are going to large speakers around a layout. But, unless you’re willing to not be a very good neighbor, it’s hard to shake the ground and not disturb the neighbors. Plus ground pounding speakers are kind of costly–lol. Then you have the problem of scale sound, that is you should hear a loco up close more loudly than say 15’ away in a tunnel. I think overall we’re doing pretty good given the physics.
They help and I use two usually with custom enclosure. Also, you have to tune the sound with the equalizer, makes a big difference. Check the frequency response of the speakers and compare to equalizer bands. You want to cover the low end and that takes a good magnet, size and quality components just to start with
With the sound levels some guys set their engines to, the poor little HO guy’s head would explode if he were standing trackside !
We go to extreme lengths to make everything proto-typically accurate but sound volume. People still want that 1:1. You should barely (if at all) hear your engine over ten feet away … the horn being the exception of course.
Yeah, that’s bad enough in 1:87. If model sound scaled like some folks seem to expect it to, then the 1: 1 heads of model railroaders might be exploding – yech! [+o(]
I suspect many comments about “not realistic enough” sound originate from “They want how much for that loco?” Don’t buy them if they don’t work for you. Lots of others enjoy sound. Many of those people turn it up too loud, but that’s OK, too, provided some ear plugs are available for visiting operators.[;)]
And the whole “not enough bass” question seems to stem from our modern age where there’s never enough bass for some. You should buy a car and spend $10k on a sound system if you want to wake up the hood with ground-pounding bass. Once scaled properly, you’re too far away on all but the smallest layouts to hear the gut-churning thumps some folks associate with music.
That’s true - there’s the mentality of “if I paid $100 for a sound decoder, I wanna HEAR it !”
I’ll admit myself to turning them up a bit on the loud side when I’m running them by myself just to hear it working. But during an operating session, they get turned way down. Nothing worse after about five minutes than a room full of engines with the volume cranked.
The first adjustment I make to a new decoder is to turn the master volume down to half or less. That eliminates the annoyance caused by loud high frequency sounds.
To give you some background, the term “High Bass” when used with speakers for DCC sound refers to a particular design of speaker that came on the market 10-ish or so years ago (maybe 15, I’m getting old) . IIRC correctly, they were first brought in by a Sn3 vendor, proved highly popular, then everyone started getting them.
I couldn’t quote you the design feature that makes it so, but the term High Bass refers to inadequacy of previously available designs in that form-factor that this speaker overcomes. Revolutionary in its day, almost everyone has one or more now if they do DCC sound. Relative to other speakers, they did sound better in the low-end…but definitely not very cutting edge in the day of the sugar cube and other more exotic designs, merely making sure you get good sound with available quality hardware at a reasonable price when you spec it.
No one is trying to mis-represent anything here beyond the usual excesses of capitalism[#dots]
Well, I actually do this ridiculous thing called “look at the frequency response.”
A lot of speakers offered for sound units have a low-end limit of 500 hz or so, which is HIGHER than A in the treble clef. One reviewer noted that the “mega bass” speakers actually have noticeable output down to 150 Hz, which is at least lower than Middle C (261.something).
And no, you won’t get the “bowel quaking earthquake” effect of a real locomotive. But that isn’t what I asked. A locomotive that puts out no sound below 500 Hz simply won’t sound right.
The idea has been rolling around in my head of placing large support (5 to 10") woofer/midrange speakers around the layout, in strategic places with some kind of trigger electronic gizmo, (there’s that word again), to switch between the different support speakers as the train moves into the area of that support speaker. If you had DCC you would still have that tiny speaker in the loco to give you high frequencies. That way the sound would be moving with the movement of the train, arround the layout and would add realism. Probably, multiple similar decoders,one in the loco, and one for each speaker or something like that, but that would get expensive and I’m not wealthy. Still, the concept seems possible, and “home made electronic gizmos” might do the trick.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to play Lotto in my old age.
