Sheldon, I have a love/hate for sound. Loud sound hurts my hears so,that the hate part. All three of my DCC/Sound engines sounds pretty good on low sound and that tinny sould is almost gone.
One thing I hate and nothing can be done about other then using the mute button is my Bachmann Alco S4 has a very loud tubrocharger sound and my BLI SW7 horn has a terrible echo. My IM DCC/Sound GP10 sounds great. I usually run the S2 and SW7 sound for 30 minutes befor hitting F8… The IM GP10 I enjoy the sound but around the 45 minute mark I engage the F8 button.
As a note of interest my new Slate Creek ISL will be using either my MRC Control Master II or CM20… Nothing wrong with DCC/Sound I just have more DC locomotives like my Atlas NS HH GP38s, all of my CR and CSX locomotives. Then my United Models Santa Fe 1950 Class 2-8-0 help me make that decision.
I’m still thinking about back dating to 1954 and modeling a Santa Fe branch line. The switching layout would be a end of the branch type with a station with team track and four ot five industries.
Volume is the second adjustment I make to ever sound decoder, after setting the address - for th every reason you state. They are factory set too loud. After all, just standing next to the layout, I am at least 270 feet away from the train, and it shouldn’t sound like i am standing next to it. When it gets down to the other end of the room - it should be ‘miles’ away and barely heard. Turnded down, the quality of the sound goes way up, plus it sounds more realistic to hear it gradually get louder as the loco approaches you, and then fade out as it moves away. Blasting full volume fromt he other side of the room which is supposed to be 2 towns over, that’s just not how it works - MAYBE in a completely flat open prairie area, but certainly not anywhere around here. I can occasionally hear the rumble of a train passing through, I’m about 5 blocks from the tracks, up hill. Sometimes I hear a horn, but the nearest crossing is at least a mile in a straight line, directly down from my house there is no reason for the horn to be sounded unless someone is on the tracks.
I DO have Lionel - my Dad’s old set. But it is a 1948 edition Scout set - no whistling tender, no smoke. Lucky it even has a headlight. I was gifted a late pre-war set, but it needs a lot of TLC to make it all run again - that one does have a whistling tender and smoke, but it used the old style smoke which is no longer available. I’m no collector - I have no qualms about replacing broken wires with modern wire to make it run, when I get around to it.
I really like the looks of those KM1 locos - I wouldn’t mind having one, have to set up a short test track somewhere to show it off, but I’ve paid less than that for some of the full size cars I’ve owned. They look and sound great. I could never get one and just put it on display, all those operating features beg for it to run.
I get the whole turn the volume way down from the factory setting, I have operated on lots of big DCC sound equipped layouts. But even turned down, the sound quality leaves me cold.
And once five or six of those things are going, even spread over a large layout, I am likely to be looking for door in 45 minutes tops.
It is very subjective, but even the HO locos that I have heard that sounded ok, don’t justify the we work or the expense for me.
Funny how every forum about a new feature/gimmick ends up into a conversation about how everything past DC engines that go forward and back is not worthwhile.
It all depends on your interests and goals in this hobby, that’s all.
And there is nothing wrong with sound and smoke if that makes the hobby enjoyable for you.
But it is equally correct to not embrace every expensive new technology that comes around the corner.
We have seen that these expensive high feature locomotives can be “fragile”, and I don’t mean in terms handling. MTH and BLI have had their share of electronics problems, smoke units still have a high failure rate after a few years, then we add a little fan to blow the smoke?
It’s 2020. If it doesent have a smoke unit I wont buy it. While the effect is not perfect, it blows away an engine that spewes crystal clear fresh air out the SMOKE stack! And you can turn it off. Brilliant!
Both Grubba and Wolf are former Lionel people. They can’t shake their toy train backgrounds.
That really sums it all up. And nothing against that if you like it, but HO has historically had a bit of a different focus until more recently.
Now HO does have a much larger RTR, casual play value following than it ever had before.
And, many older “modeler” types like myself have embraced some degree of RTR with or without sound, smoke, etc.
I admit, I like buying some stuff ready to run and possibly just doing a little “kit bashing” to it, leaving me more time for other more involved modeling projects.
True, Mike Wolf never worked for LIONEL, but the point is they both come from the O gauge high rail world, which remains different from the HO scale world.
And to varying degrees, both have trouble fully understanding the HO market…
OR, as I have suggested for years,
they arrogantly assume they can “change” the HO hobby.
And, maybe they have expanded or created a new aspect to HO, but the expectation that all HO modelers will embrace those aspects is arrogant at best…
Since there has been a diversion into talking about sound, I’ll add my thoughts.
I don’t model steam, rather modern diesels, so my comments come from that angle.
I’ve come to consider the sound of the horn and bell to be essential items of detail when conducting operations. Kind of like how some might consider box car ends or smoke box contour to be essential items of detail on any accurate model. Plus, I simply enjoy them.
Add ditch lights that alternate flashing when the horn is activated and it becomes that much more realistic and enjoyable for me.
Prime mover sounds can be a bit annoying if not done well, and IMO, EMD PM sounds can just be too whiny after a while. LokSound and Tsunami2’s representation of Alcos is outstanding however. An added detail worth leaving at a high volume level, but I mainly adjust individual sound volumes to have the horn and bell prominate while the PM sound should drone rather quietly in the background. Reving and notching is a nice touch.
All of the other sounds such as coupler clank, brake squeel, engineer or conductor voices, etc seem gimmicky to me. The CVs on those sounds are set to 0 immediately upon first programming.
More than a decade ago, a number of local modeler know all agreed that it would be good to just have bells, whistles, and horns without chuff or prime movers…
Since there has been a diversion into talking about sound, I’ll add my thoughts.
I don’t model steam, rather modern diesels, so my comments come from that angle.
I’ve come to consider the sound of the horn and bell to be essential items of detail when conducting operations. Kind of like how some might consider box car ends or smoke box contour to be essential items of detail on any accurate model. Plus, I simply enjoy them.
Add ditch lights that alternate flashing when the horn is activated and it becomes that much more realistic and enjoyable for me.
Prime mover sounds can be a bit annoying if not done well, and IMO, EMD PM sounds can just be too whiny after a while. LokSound and Tsunami2’s representation of Alcos is outstanding however. An added detail worth leaving at a high volume level, but I mainly adjust individual sound volumes to have the horn and bell prominate while the PM sound should drone rather quietly in the background. Reving and notching is a nice touch.
All of the other sounds such as coupler clank, brake squeel, engineer or conductor voices, etc seem gimmicky to me. The CVs on those sounds are set to 0 immediately upon first programming.
More than a decade ago, a number of local modeler know all agreed that it would be good to just have bells, whistles, and horns without chuff or prime movers…
Well that is a recent development because a few years back when I was running on a half dozen DCC layouts on a regular basis, F8 gave you total silence.
But that will still not get me to invest in 140 decoders and 10 wireless throttles…