Two fold question. First the new BLI Mikado, just got it today and runs fine. Used electrial tape on the inside of the tender to make it stop ratteling. Got it home and on the bench, way to quite and sound is at max. My other BLI’s will drowen it out, but there tenders are much bigger so there sound box is bigger as well. Get a bigger thender and transplant the sound system, or is there a way to boost the sound with a driffent sound card?
Next is a PK2 (older brown box) FA-2 A and B unit. It has had a unknowen decoder and speaker added. Owner is in the great round house in the sky. Friend sold for his lost friend and know nothing about trains. I will say this, after fixing cracked center gear’s they run great! Want to talk about slow speeds, took 4 minutes to cover 3 feet of track, that is slow. But it as well is a little quite. Speaker and Decoder is in the B unit and unpowered. It has a singel speaker and plenty of room for changing things around. Make a bigger sound box, or added a dual speaker system and that would have a bigger sound box anyway? It does sound great, no rattel and horn is the best I have heard so far, but the BLI’s will drowen it out.
It could just be the chip. I have a GP-38 with a Sountrax LC. Speaker is decent and has box. Sounds great, but when I run it at the club, the BLI’s across the room and it’s a big room drown it out. I’ve talked with the SoundTrax techs. There’s nothing I can do.
It could be that the BLI is King in the Volume department.
Usually a CV will have a list of sounds attached to it and each sound has a 0 for off or 1-15 on a CV for volume.
If you want loud, you probably are going to find out which units can be loud. Just the other day I set the Dynamo on the T1 Duplex to the max and it was a jet that drowned out the rest of the sounds on the engine. But the T1 has a HUMONGUS tender and FAT speakers and to hit the whistle on that is to have the entire train show look around and wonder what’s blowing?
There is always a little something too loud, sometimes it’s too quiet.
Do you operate your trains with ear-plugs on? Seriously, I dont understand the make-the-locos-as-loud-as-I-can mentality. It is important to remember that you are working with a SCALED down version of the real thing, and the sound has to follow suit. BLI units are WAY too loud out of the box and I concurr with the other replies in turning down the BLI units to match the other units…
Im hearing impaired, I take all the volume I can get. I also have quick settings where I can “Calm down” the volume for another person on a different layout without too much problems.
I remember when I first got the BLI NW some time ago, I could not hear anything at all except the horn. I got two more coming and when I get through with them they will be heard.
That was always one of the attractions of BLI to me, twin speaker BIG sound in a time when all the other mini speakers and decoders sounded painfully weak, inadequate or not at all.
I should make a quick video of the F units idiling ready to work, you can see the shells vibrating at certain angles. The volume is really up there. Those engines I consider “Wife controlled” if I hear “HEY HUSBAND TURN THEM THINGS DOWN!” Ye bet they are turned down.
Strangely I consider G scale or Gauge One too loud. I dont know if they are driving 6 inch speakers in those tenders but whew! [{(-_-)}]