Hi,
Just curious about the MP15AC locomotive I have that has the Tsunami sound decoder. I have the master volume full and I can barely hear it. Might anybody else on this list experience the same thing and if so what did you do to make it a little louder? I am thinking maybe the speaker might be at fault but not sure.
Thanks,
Barry
Athearn, factory sound? Is it new, decoder not adjusted by anyone and on default settings? Or did it work normally and now doesn’t? If the sound settings could have been changed, either read the other sound CVs (bell, horn, exhaust, etc) or do a reset and see if the same behavior.
http://www.soundtraxx.com/manuals/Users%20Guide%20Diesel.pdf
If a reset has been done and you can truly barely hear it, I’d consider disconnecting the speaker and hooking up another of same ohms. If still poor, I’d consider the decoder bad.
Of course, if new and faulty, I’d send it back for warranty work if you don’t want to tinker / troubleshoot.
Paul,
The locomotive is brand new. Athearn factory installed Tsunami sound. Nothing has been changed before I received it via eBay. Will maybe need to contact Athearn.
I use decoder pro and set the master sound to 255 full volume, when I got it the master volume was at 160.
I also set a number of other sounds to full volume too.
The horn and bell are not very loud either.
I also should mention that I am 90% deaf and use two hearing aids. This is the first sound locomotive I have purchased that I needed to increase the volume. I have 18 sound equiped loco’s and I have had to reduce the volume on every one of them. I have Tsunami, Loksound, Econami and one MRC in a Genesis 4-8-4 that I also had to reduce the volume. Go figure.
Barry
Tsunami horns are generally not loud no matter what you do. Probbaly made worse in this case by it being a rather small loco with not a lot of room to cram all the electronics in plus a motor plus enough weight to make it pull anything, so it likely has a rather small speaker compared to what’s in some of the larger models. Or less of an enclosure. Or it ould be that the speaker has come loose from the enclosure, allowing sound to escape where it shouldn’t be, which will drastically cut volume.
–Randy
Randy,
I am going to take your advise and decided to remove the shell and take a look at the possibility of a speaker enclosure separated like you mentioned.
Will report findings shortly.
Barry
Well, I just pulled the shell and it has a Sountraxx oval speaker rated 8 Ohms 1W. I would say 5/8" x 1.5" x 1/4" high in a baffle that is 3/8" high.
I tried two other speakers (Soundtraxx and MRC with baffles) and I have the same result.
Hardly any sound.
I sent an email to Athearn a little while ago and will have to see what they think.
Maybe the output of the decoder is not working and I need to have the decoder replaced.
Who knows.
Barry
Does this decoder have the Equalizer CV’s ? If so try increasing the higher frequency number and lower the lower ones.
My two Tsunami DSDs have a slotted screw on top of the decoder to control volume along with a master volume CV. The instructions said it was a slotted screw but I checked one and it was a cross screw. No difference. Clockwise to increase volume level and anti-clockwise, decrease.
Make sure it hasn’t been turned down first. I was able to remove a section of the body on my SD-9 with removing the shell to access it. I was then able to adjust volume while it was running.
Woodone,
It does and I have increased the volume to be a little better but not enough tho. I have ordered a new speaker that I have used in a number of other Tsunami decoders that I have had to decrease the volume. I hope to see the speaker tomorrow and get it installed this weekend. I have been in contact with Athearn and they informed me that the speaker is installed upside down and have changed that but the magnet touched the truck gear housing and had to modify the unit to be able to get he speaker high enough to clear the housing. It has helped but man for a expensive sound installed locomotive a person should not have to go through this. I have also seen some post of people having issues with this since this started.
Barry
Just a short update. I received my new Loksond sugar cube speaker yesterday (Saturday). I just finished installing that in my MP15AC eliminating the speaker that was installed with this locomotive (Unknown brand speaker but low sound output) and I now have great plenty of sound. I will need to fire up the Decoder Pro software and reduce the sound.
No real need to fire up Decoder Pro, just go to OPS mode and set CV128 down a bit.
Say down to a value of 150.