No wonder there is not many of the loco’s in N except some in F AB units because it’s simply too hard! Even if you could cram the tiniest speaker in it, people are talking about building enclosures for the speaker and even in HO is hard to get decent sound! So this is what I would like to know, who has successfully done it??? The new LokSound sound decoder for both motor and sound looks attractive but man, it’s a bit of a risk for $130!
I am about to give up, what about you? Might be easier stick to my DC and get one of those new MRC Symphony 77 sound station mount under the layout. The thing is, the only reason I want to convert to DCC is sound in N.
Even in HO, I’ve never been too impressed with the sound quality. A 1"-diameter speaker simply cannot vibrate a large enough volume of air to replicate the deep bass ‘rumble’ produced by 2nd-generation turbocharged EMD locos.
I’m going with DCC because of the improved operating capabilities. But for sound, I’ll most likely do some under-the-surface mounting of large speakers to use with SurroundTraxx (hope they follow thru with their plans to produce it…)
I’ve bought one factory-installed sound loco, and I’ve installed one myself. I’m working in HO. I’m really, really hooked on sound. No, you don’t get that deep, throbbing bass sound, but the sense of “presence” from a locomotive is there. The directional nature of sound that follows the loco around the layout comes from the higher frequencies, anyway.
From the amount of work that it took to put a sound decoder into a relatively “empty” shell (a P1K Alco RS) I would suggest buying your sound locos already installed, even in HO. For N-scale, I would say that’s the only way to go, for now.
Sound has come a long way in just the past year. If you’re on the fence, you might want to wait a bit longer before jumping in.
True, sound may eventually make it in N, but for now, it has to be counted among N scale’s weaknesses. I do use table-mounted HO sound decoders with larger speakers, so it’s not silence, but it’s also not onboard.
I totaly agree with you about the sound presence from a loco…I was playing with my iPod and just simulating sound and that’s enough to get me hooked on try to get sound into the whole thing…
I also agree with you about buying sound already installed…I have done about 1 week solid research on DCC sound and talked to most manufacturers and I think there is just no provision for ‘drop-in’ sound for N scale…it’s simply too small…I might just get a pair of the Precision Craft E7A and B (A powered and B with sound and just see how it goes…the Bachmann Spectrum claims to have room for decoder but not only you have to manual solder them but also mill for speaker.
<>I guess it would really depend on what a person wants. There is nothing like feeling the rumble of an SD70 (real one) passing within 50’ of you. But if you scale that sound down, what do you get? Probably something you would get out of that 1" speaker.
<>If you want real sound, by all means hookup that subwoofer and 500 watt amp. Personally I would want scale and moble sound. However like everyone has pointed out, the manufactures are just not putting out, yet. I would think that they would eventually reconfigure the chassis to accommodate sound.
The sound in the precision craft models is pretty good. Actually, I’ve had to turn it down as it can be a little too much.
The sound was also good in the Concor PA/PB models produced a couple of years ago.
Aztec is producing newly milled frames for sound installation, but with the removal of more frame it may be too light a model to use on the layout, haven’t tried them though.
I agree too. I model in N-scale and I don’t consider sound even a remote priority. There are just too many other aspects to modeling that I find much more enjoyable (or even have time and money for).
I know it’s hard but I really have very limited space…the largest space I can spare is probably only about 4’ by 5’ or so and that’s even assuming the wife would let me take a big chunk of space out of the lunge room! Plus I also have a 1/500 scale airport already and that’s got to go somewhere else…so see, I am really struggling for space for anything larger than N…but I am tempted though…because it would be just so much easier!
The new LokSound decoder with sound does seem very promosing though…but unless you start to cut up the locos, you just neve know and it’s kind of expensive to experiment with…
This is exactly why I was hooked instantly! Precision Craft’s website make it sound so good! May be I’ll just get a E7A unit without the B unit and see what it’s like…
Is yours like what they showing on their website? You wouldn’t have a video of it yourself would you? Because you know how it is, advertising always sounds a lot better! LOL
I agree too and that’s why model train is the greatest hobby in the world which involves almost every skill!
I am just having space problems and just love that sound presence factor in a layout…hmmm…guess you can’t have everything just like the world is not perfect!
I’ve sene it donw two ways now, the first was a DIY job in an E unit, the person put a single large (relatively - this IS N scale we’re talking about) in th efuel tank area and it sounded quite good. I saw the PCM E’s at the National Train show and found it interesting they put two speakers inside the body rather than use the fuel tank area. I guess they filled the botom of the tank area with weight to get tractive effort. In both case I though the sound was quite adequate.
MRC and Aztec have an option for some smaller units, pretty ingenious actually. Too bad the MRC sound decoders are of such poor quality. And N scale steam should be easy, atl east for locos with full-size tenders. Start getting into those tiny slope-back tenders and space again becomes a problem. A large road steamer in N scale (those with big giant tenders - Big Boy, some of the PRR locos) have a realtive ton of room inside to use speakers nearl as big as those used in HO models - shouldn’t be a problem makign those sound decent.
I wouldn’t say it was too hard, I would say the quality is too low. But this should not be a surprise to anyone, even if all they have been doing is reading the threads on sound on the forum over the past few years. Physics don’t scale down. Sound is poor quality in HO, so one should be able to extrapolate to N.
Unless it is a very tiny layout that only ever has one locomotive running at a time, that might be selling the benefits of DCC a bit short.
You know what, I am at the verge of vonverting to HO! Just looked at the prices and gees, I can get a set of E8/9 AB set with DCC and sound in HO with a lot of change compare to N!
That is one reason I switched back to HO scale. When I was doing N-scale I would see an advertisement for some thing and get all excited over the price and then realize it was the HO version…
I will admit a certain partiality for big steam, including its sounds. IMHO, it would take at least O scale to do justice to the sound of a Y6 pusher running simple at 5 MPH, or a J starting on an upgrade. The prototype sounded like cannonfire! Most models simply don’t have the speaker capacity to reproduce that in HO, never mind N scale.
That’s one reason I haven’t rushed to embrace sound. I’d hate to spend the money, just to hear phoof when I was expecting Whooomph!!!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with silent locomotives)
I’ve yet to hear or even see an N scale loco with sound but I can imagine how difficult it would be to add sound to one. I’m in HO and have 6 or 7 locos with sound and out of that number 2 or 3 have decent sound. One of them, a BLI C30-7 has, to me… very good sound. I can’t imagine what sound would be like in N scale.
I just hope it’s the same as the Precision Craft’s website!